too much?

I recently acquired 90gbs of music off a friend of mine, pushing my total music library to about 140gbs. iTunes tells me that I could listen to 88 days worth of music without ever hearing the same song twice. Imagine - almost 3 months of listening to music 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and never hearing the same song twice. It boggles the mind.

But the downside is, I'm overwhelmed by my own collection now. Before, I knew almost every song that I had: if someone asked me if I had a song, I could tell them by memory, or if someone asked what was playing, I could usually tell them. But now I have no idea what's in my library.

It's weird how that happens. People are so attached to their music, and how it constructs their identity so now that I've got so much music that I didn't go to the effort of individually picking out and purchasing/downloading, I don't feel much of an attachment to it. Listening to the library on shuffle, I can tell when one of my own songs comes on, and I feel calmer than when some random thing comes up. So yeah, I guess I'll just have to deal. And spend about a year getting to know all these new artists.

dichotomies...

I've been doing a lot of reading lately about technology, sociology, and gender. This is really interesting stuff! Who would have thought - starting 7 years ago in a music degree in piano - that I would be so interested in the social aspects of technology...but it's very fascinating. It's mostly common sense when you think about it, but we take technology very much for granted. Especially when it comes to how it perscribes gender roles.

Admitedly, I'm sure everyone has questioned at some point why there are such distinctions between girl and boy toys (especially in youth), but it really is amazing the extent to which these differences socialize us into our stereotypical gender roles.

The dichotomies of men/woman, technology/organic, nature/city are played out endlessly in the field of technology: men use technology as a way to gain power over nature (or woman). They mark themselves as the object of power over technology, and subsequently, women accept the normalized role of the technophobic. Power relations being played out in such simple items as electric shavers.

But if technical competance is the domain of the male - where men can tinker - where does the iPod fit? There are no discernable parts that can be taken apart and re-assembled. Without risking sheer failure of the device, there is really no good way to see what goes on inside. In this sense, it would be a very feminine device. What are the implications for women and the acceptance/usage of technology, then? Is the iPod an easy/appropriate way for women to usher themselves into the realm?

Another note/dichotomy: cyborg/goddess. The feminist association with the goddess has traditionally been pitted against the vision of the cyborg. But why can't a woman be both?

starfish!

So as not to bore you with more photos of another trip to the highlands, here's a collection of photos from the highlands. Okay, it's more like a random post of me as starfish all over the highlands.

another trip to the highlands...

(I tried to post this earlier, but the site didn't want to upload my photos...so this will probably be a shorter version)

So this week we decided to rent a car for the night and do a little tour of the highlands! We had some amazing weather, and some great sights. I had more to say before, but now I can't remember!! ha ha...Anyway, enjoy the photos!

Glen Coe:


A crazy sign at the start of the trails in Glen Nevis. Only slightly alarming, but I guess they have to make sure they cover everything:



Glen Nevis:



Ben Nevis - the highest mountain in the UK:



Urquhart Castle on the Loch Ness. It's really pretty up in this area of the highlands. Basically, as I've mentioned before, it's really sad that all the trees in this country have been cut down and somewhat replaced with artificial forests. But the further north you go, the more natural the forests are, and you can get a better sense of what the country was like hundreds of years ago.



The Loch Ness. One of the most beautiful lakes I've seen in this country so far.





Fort George - a fort built by the British after they won the battle at Culloden. The body of water is the North Sea. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see the dolphins that apparently hang around.



We went for a free tour/tasting at the Glen Livet distillery. Here's the 750pound bottle of whisky they had for sale at the gift shop.



Scottish weather at its best:

daffodils!

These photos are a tad old, but I figure I'd post them anyways. I took them on my birthday, and since then managed to contract the mumps (!!), so, here they are now.

Edinburgh is apparently full of daffodils in the spring. They seem to be planted by hand, considering many are in interesting patterns, but that must've been quite the job to plant them all. These are photos of the flowers on the hill surrounding the castle. It was a great place to just hang out and lie in a field of flowers!

Enjoy!

"strange humanoid experience"

So after living in Scotland for about half a year, the Sasquatch has returned to my life in full force. See previous post for the birthday-fighting-off-Sasquatch manual, but now people are alerting me to the fact that the Sasquatch has been spotted on film in Tofino.

Here's the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWOKwyT_xrU

Now personally I would love to belive, but to me this mostly looks like a bear wandering through the woods. It's a shame it's not better video quality.



On another note - Sasquatch at the beach!

absurdism...

So I've decided that I need to start reading some absurdist literature. I haven't read any as of yet, but from what I can tell, I think absudism is a very intriguing philosophy, in theory.

From what I can find, absudism maintains that human life is essentially meaningless, but as humans we strive to find meaning in life (often through religion), or come to the conclusion that life is meaningless alltogether. This realization can potentially be very depressing for people, which could lead to the removal from an absurb life, aka, suicide.

The importance is to realize that life is absurd, and to find meaning within the moments we have - appreciate the beauty around us.

As someone who finds more wrong/confusing with organised religion than good/easy to accept, I find this "ism" very appealing. I can see the drive that people have to find meaning, but I also believe that it is entirely selfish for people to believe that this whole universe was created solely for us. The world is much more complex than we can understand, and we are but a mere speck of dust in comparison.

On the other hand, I am also too much of an agnostic to entirely discredit the possibility of a higher power of sorts. As long as the questions of the universe are still to be answered, I will still harbour thoughts that something beyond our comprehension has played a part.

It is the meaning of the moments of beauty which I really enjoy in absurdism. As I have mentioned before, nature is a large part of my spirituality. Why should I spend hours of my time praying through blind faith, when I can go outside and experience life for that it has to offer? I can see the complexity of the space surrounding me, and appreciate that I am but a tiny piece in the puzzle.

Experience the beauty that has manifested itself in our little planet, and appreciate it for what it is.