Circadian Shift

The week went by very quickly.

Once again, things were dominated by this new working gig of mine, and left me like this exploding dog cartoon -- so very tired.

Tunage consumption for the week included:

• "Back to Me" by Kathleen Edwards -- "I've got lights you've never seen / I've got moves I've never used" -- she's got ways of making me listen to this song over and over and over; iTunes has this track filed under 'Country', but it still rocks
• A Rush of Blood to the Head by Coldplay -- yes, I'm very very late in catching on to Coldplay; sure I loved the track "Clocks", but the other singles that I'd heard on the radio ("Yellow" from their album Parachutes, "In My Place") left me pretty much indifferent; having just recently gotten around to listening to Rush of Blood in its entirety introduced me to some other tunes that I like a great deal ("Amsterdam", "God Put a Smile Upon Your Face"); haven't had a chance to hear the new album much yet, but I like the first single ("Speed of Sound")

BTW, image sources this week included StockVault.net, Pixel Perfect Digital, and stock.xchng.

Saturday night electro MP3s:

• "Paris Hilton" by MU, courtesy of Silence is a Rhythm Too (I posted a link to the video for this a while back)
• "Your Body Is My Body" by Ellen Allien from music (for robots)

Kick & Go has goth classic MP3s -- Siouxsie, Bauhaus, Ministry, etc. Go get 'em all!

Yep, late with the mood board again...

It was a crazy, exhausting week, largely dominated by the job thing. I've been learning a lot, which is good, but it hasn't been easy being the new kid on the block.

Other than working, I went totally apeshit with the music downloads, and bought the following from various online services:

• Arular by M.I.A. -- ragga/hip-hop/dancehall/electro fun that gets a teensy bit repetitive if you listen to the album straight through, but individual tracks work great in a mix
• Greatest Hits from Nick Heyward and Haircut 100 -- a healthy hit of 80s nostalgia, although the 12" mix of "Favourite Shirts" featured on the album is not the one I'm used to (and is also not as good)
• Push the Button by The Chemical Brothers -- some good moments, but overall kind of "meh"
• "The Elephants Graveyard" and "Dave" by The Boomtown Rats -- both tracks are far better than that wretched novelty tune that constitutes the Rats' greatest hit
• "Diggin' a Hole" by Big Sugar -- a great road song, even if you're not driving
• "Misfit Kid" by The Cars -- a lesser-known tune from their Panorama album
• "Don't Walk Past", "Chinese Graffiti", "Radio Silence", and "Video Verite" by Blue Peter -- 80s retro CanCon, just because
• "Try Jah Love" by Third World -- sweet reggae goodness, actually penned by Stevie Wonder (!)
• "Constant Craving" and "Miss Chatelaine" by k.d. lang -- moody and moping

This week is shaping up to be more of the same, although with fewer music purchases.

I've been way behind on following what's going on with the MP3 blogs, but I did manage to visit Silence is a Rhythm Too, where Michael is featuring Scritti Politti here, here, and here.

Also, from earlier in the week, are three tracks from John Foxx's first album after leaving Ultravox.

The latest downloadable DJ set over at Sonic Sunset is a Kraftwerk retrospective.

Matt spins well over two hours of electronic goodness, with plenty of Kraftwerk tunage both old and new(ish), plus tracks from a few other groups who were heavily influenced by the boys from Dusseldorf.

The session is downloadable in two parts (56 MB + 72 MB), so go fire up your download manager and grab 'em now.

• Homebrew Air Conditioning
  made using a large fan and some other hardware, for less than $30 CAD
  (tags: meta misc)

Having started a new contract gig this week, the over-riding theme has been work, work, work...

It's a really cool job (I'm doing business analysis and usability stuff), and there's been a tonne of information to absorb, so everything's been kind of a blur. But it's good.

Media consumption for the week:

• I'm currently reading Submit Now: Designing Persuasive Websites by Andrew Chak -- for work, obviously.
• I'm not a huge fan of Sloan, but I do like a few of their songs, so I bought and downloaded four tunes from their compilation A Sides Win: Singles 1992-2005 from Puretracks.

And, I've started listening to Mix 99.9 in the mornings again (*sheepish look*). I know the CBC's 'Metro Morning' would be a better choice for my thinking brain, but I really need music in the morning to wake up, as well as frequent reminders of what time it is (which rules out WOXY Vintage or Dirty Radio).

BTW, I should clarify that most of the pictures on the board came from stock.xchng (I haven't taken any snaps of my office).

• Turn your hamster into a fighting machine!!
  (tags: misc visuals)

Well, thanks to Classic Quarters, I've had the meme-torch passed to me again. This time, the topic is books...

Number of books I own...

• I have probably upwards of 300 books of different shapes, sizes, and genres. Please don't make me count them.

Last book bought...

• The last book I bought was for my mom -- namely Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage : Stories by Alice Munro. The last book I bought for myself, if I remember correctly, was The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby.

Last book read...

• Managing Enterprise Content: A Unified Content Strategy by Ann Rockley

• Once again, this the sort of list that I choke on, worrying that I will regret my choices later. Furthermore, I don't necessarily know if these books mean a lot to me, but they are certainly ones that I have read repeatedly, and will likely do so again:
  • The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
  • Microserfs by Douglas Coupland
  • High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
  • Build a Better Life by Stealing Office Supplies by Scott Adams (or any other Dilbert book, for that matter)
  • Battle Royale by Koushun Takami

Next five:

• Ah, this is the part where I get to pass the pain fun along to others. So, kiddies, here ya go:
  • Betty at Maximum Verbosity
  • Zed
  • Eva, who has written about this meme, but hasn't actually done it
  • Graig
  • And finally, whaddaya say Bob, feel like doing another meme?

• Kitten Cannon
  somewhat grotesque, yet addictive, Flash game
  (tags: misc)

del.icio.us had some kind of upgrade happen last weekend. I had posted some links on Sunday afternoon that didn't get picked up for cross-posting to here on the 'Shift (problem seems to be have been fixed since then) so here they are:

• Quick Verbal Tactics Dot Com -- "Got people skills?"
• Animals and us: Close encounters -- interview with anthropologist Jane Goodall
• TTC Subway Rider Efficiency Guide -- "It tells you where to stand to get on and off in the most efficient manner. Where to find the express routes, the low-volume routes and just about any other detail a hard core TTC commuter might want to know."
• Don’t Be Bullied By Your Clients -- People really amaze me sometimes. And not in a good way.
• Origami CD Cases -- links to some different resources on paper CD cases
• Wake Up, Little Susie - Can we sleep less? -- Author David Plotz tries out the wakefulness drug Modafinil

As usual, you can find all my del.icio.us links here.

• Learn how to bounce back
  pointers on dealing with personal setbacks
  (tags: squishy)
• The 100 Best Products of 2005
  Product of the Year: Mozilla Firefox
  (tags: tech)
• The Unofficial Web Applications List
  pointers to web-based software that you run through your browser
  (tags: tech)
• My ideal job
  file under "Funny Because It's True"
  (tags: biz misc tech)
• Bit of a fix for bride and best man...
  if caught doing the nasty at an inappropriate time, it is important to keep calm
  (tags: misc)

Here we go with another wrap-up of the week that was...

I saw two movies this week (thank Dog for "Happy Hour" matinees at the Bloor Cinema):

• Downfall -- based on the memoirs of Adolf Hitler's secretary, the film chronicles the final days of Hitler and his entourage in their bunker as Berlin falls to the Russians (official site needs Flash; you can also view the info on IMDB)
• The Upside of Anger -- Joan Allen plays a well-heeled suburban housewife whose husband disappears one day (ditto with the Flash; here's the IMDB info)

I enjoyed them both. Interestingly, they shared some common themes (denial, desparation, things coming apart at the seams), although obviously one movie was a lot happier at the end than the other one.

Tunage consumption for the week was heavily fed by the newly launched WOXY Vintage channel. Standout tracks included:

• "Stupid Girl" by Garbage (caution: very loud music playing when the site loads)
• "Infected" by The The

I wasn't completely hooked into the oldies for the whole week, however, as these two newer tunes spent a lot of time on repeat in WinAmp:

• "Wherever You Are" by Ulrich Schnauss, taken from the compilation CD Blue Skied An' Clear
• "6AM" by Alex Smoke, from the album Incommunicado

Both tracks were discoveries via Dirty Radio. I'll admit I'm a complete sucker for melancholic tracks featuring lush or intricate synth arrangements, and these tunes have haunted me for some time since I first heard them (and figured much more prominently in my initial take on this week's mood board). I finally managed to track them down and buy the MP3s from Bleep.com.

Another recent tune that got prominent play (in the CD Walkman) was "Speak Easy" from Swayzak (more about that song in this previous mood board writeup) -- it supplies the textual elements on the board this week.

Lastly, I spent a good chunk of time this week hauling myself around on public transit to meet various people. It was all for a good cause, as I've managed to secure some contract employment for myself (I start Monday). This means that you'll be spared my whining about looking for a job, at least for the next little while.