1. as we lazily stroll through summer and enter the third week of july, i realize that the season is about half over. as much i like to complain and harrumph about all the odious things that summer entails, there are things about these three months that i do enjoy. i like that, at work, things are even more relaxed for me than they are in the september-may months. i like that summer classes are given at an accelerated pace and a whole course can be knocked out in five (in some cases, three!) weeks instead of over four months. i also like that in the summer, when i’m only taking only class at a time instead of four, i can read for my own pleasure without the guilt that comes with neglecting to read for school. i do miss dressing in dark colors and wearing tights, boots, layers, and jackets. i also miss my regular tv programming like 30 rock, but i have the notion of mad men’s season premiere in under just two weeks to comfort me. also, in the summer, i usually re-activate my netflix account and start watching all those classic movies and independent and foreign productions i’ve heard about during the year. i know that if i have netflix active during the year, i tend to just hoard whatever dvd last arrived and forget about it in some corner of my room. (more…)

here in town is a bar/restaurant-type place that can be a nice hang-out. tuesday evenings at this establishment are really nice. the mood is quiet and relaxed, the bartenders are at ease and friendly, and people are usually nowhere to be found. my friend and i discovered this well-kept secret a few months ago, and we enjoy going there. however, one day one of us suggested that we perhaps go on friday, because …. well, i don’t know the reason now, but we went. instead of quiet, the mood was loud and obnoxious. instead of the bartenders being at ease, they were rude and agitated. and instead of there being no people around, there were people everywhere. and of every kind. there were the type of people with whom you hoped you would never have to share a roof, people you hoped you’d never have to see after high school, and people who should never leave their homes. cages. whatever. (more…)

i signed up to last.fm, the music community website, almost three years ago. i don’t know anyone really in real life that uses it, but to put it simply, it’s kind of like the website pandora and facebook would produce if websites could get married, go on a honeymoon, and bam! nine months later, have this beautiful social networking/internet radio baby. to use last.fm, you have to set up whatever media players you use on your own computer. this way, whenever you’re just working on your laptop and listening to music at the same time, last.fm is quietly working away in the background, keeping track of everything you’re listening to. this is called scrobbling. scrobbling lets you do lots of really cool things. for one, last.fm keeps track every single artist you’ve listened to and the amount of times a particular song has been heard. it also puts together a radio station just for you and everything it knows you love to listen to. however, not only do you get a radio station with the music you hear, you also get a station made up solely of recommendations, artists and songs last.fm thinks you would enjoy listening to. scrobbling also helps out by finding people with similar tastes and calling you neighbors. (more…)