I'm A Pincushion, Gotta Face the Facts

Hey all. Sorry for the lack of updates, but school has been kicking my butt this quarter, and it's gonna get worse before it gets better - I've got a mid-term on Sunday. While that definitely doesn't help my stress level, today I went to the doctor for my annual check-up and got inspected, poked, prodded, folded, stapled and mutilated, which is one of my least favorite things. Then my roommate tells me he's going to be moving out in a couple of months - not on bad terms or anything, he just wants to be closer to school & work (gas prices are killing him) so that will necessitate some belt-tightening on my part. It's kind of a catch-22, because I often thought that it would be nice to have the place all to myself and that I was getting a little old to have a roommate, but he's one of my best friends and we've lived together for seven years, so I'm sure it'll be weird when he's gone. Overall, not the best week.

Anyways, I stopped by my friendly local soul-sucking SuperUltraMegaMart for something the other day, and some guy was in the parking lot hawking CD's. Turns out he was part of a local group of rappers (what's the plural of "rappers"? Gaggle? Troop? Pod?) who've had some success locally with a song about the city that's gotten some airplay on the radio and used on some locally-produced TV shows (I think I heard it the other day on one of the local sports wrap-up shows). I gave him a few bucks for a CD, and noticed something: It looked damn good. I remember the days when my friends who were in bands would record to a Portastudio and spend hours dubbing tapes on their boomboxes and xeroxing black-and-white inserts. The CD I bought had a full-color laser printed cover that looked like it was shot by a professional photographer. I also noticed that it wasn't only a CD, it was also a "DVD magazine", so apparently there's some video content on it as well, although I haven't had a chance to look at that yet. The CD, along with the fact that I've been obsessed with podcasts lately, has me thinking about how far we've come in terms of producing and distributing content in the last twenty years, and how Hollywood and the RIAA are only trying to make things more difficult. But I realized it doesn't matter: I'm to the point were I could almost cut off my cable TV service and throw away all my radios & CD players, and I wouldn't really miss any of them. High-speed Internet access is dirt cheap, and if I was so inclined I could easily grab any TV shows I wanted via BitTorrent or Emule. Almost all of my radio listening has been replaced by podcasts - (the few show I do listen via a radio to are also available as podcasts if I wanted them). Spending as much time on the web as I do, a local band with a well-promoted website has a better chance of me noticing them than a giant cardboard cutout for the latest manufactured pop star at Blockbuster. I transfer all of this content, as well as files ripped from DVD's that I legally purchased, to my cell phone (although some people want to make that illegal). The entertainment industry is trying to hang on as long as they can, as evidenced by the many news stories that have been circulating in recent weeks. I urge you to get involved in protecting your rights by calling or writing your representatives or getting involved (at least read up!) via the many organizations and groups dedicated to consumer's rights.