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The Hype Machine’s 2008 zeitgeist

January 10, 2009

The folks over at the Hype Machine have created a 2008 music zeitgeist that can best be described as a loving work of information wizardry. To the curious and musically-inclined, it’s an incredible resource for mining the past year’s trends in popular music. To followers of the blogosphere, the Hype Machine’s offering is unique because all of the content is derived from the social web: the rankings were based on individual bloggers’ year-end top lists, the reviews were written by thousands of independent music fans, and the artist photos were shot by a horde of different flickr users.

in 2009

January 1, 2009

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I wish for change.

(and maybe 9 hours of sleep)

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On the era of Amazon.com

December 27, 2008

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Today, I read that Amazon.com had its ‘best holiday ever’, selling a ‘record-breaking 72.9 items per second’ (via reddit).

It’s interesting to watch Amazon take over. It seems to me that we’re experiencing a social shift, where more and more consumers are choosing to buy online instead of heading to the retail stores. I’m satisfied to believe that this is partly due to the increased amount of interaction and information (product reviews, ratings, tags) Amazon provides to shoppers. On the other hand, it scares me a bit to consider the implications massive Amazon adoption is having upon our shipping system, particularly the fuel required for personal delivery. I wonder what our society would look like if the majority shopped this way.

Speaking as a member of the so-called “Internet Generation,” my experience with Amazon and online shopping was quite the opposite of the prevailing trend.

Oregon snow 2008

December 23, 2008

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My day without power

December 22, 2008

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Power Out

Today was a strange and unpleasant experience. On what will possibly be known as the coldest spell of the year, I awoke today to a frigid house, snowed in, and without power.

It was fantastic in a sense to realize how deeply I had become complacent about my energy dependency. All of the sudden, things got really hard without heat, light, transportation, or entertainment. Our neighbors next door still had power, so it was particularly striking to appreciate how hamstrung we were by this invisible force.

Just at the edge of defeat (sleep), at about 11:50 tonight (after 16 hours), our power was restored.

There’s at least 6 inches on the ground right now. I’ve never seen anything like it in my 13 years living here. The snow continues to fall, late at night. We’ll be lucky to wake up tomorrow and still have power.