2.20.2009

New (Legit) Site?

Well, here's some breaking news for absolutely no one because no one reads this anyways.

I've decided to relocate to a new site, using Google Sites. It's a little bit more convenient, and it's a new idea for me. However, I'm not exactly sure how long-lived it will be. In terms of format, it's much easier to use Blogger because in general all I have to do is type and click; in Google Sites I have a bit more discretion of what I want and where. The organization here is much simpler, and I don't have to work quite so hard on it. But, at any case, I've been dreaming for a site for Hipsteradio since I created it here, so I'm going to try it out.

What will happen to this site? I have no clue. Like I've said before, I really want to keep it. It would be really helpful if I had some other authors who posted here, so that I had more ideas with what I should do.

The other Hipsteradio site is very...basic for now. I don't have any big ideas for it, and I don't even know how I want to format it.

2.18.2009

Fanfare

Wow...so yesterday's post is actually incomplete because I wanted to finish later and never got to it, and instead I ended up publishing it in a hurry. So it ends with an incomplete sentence.

I am supposed to be studying for my mid-term in my Intro to American Politics class right now. I am taking a short break because my everything is exhausted from studying so much. I don't know how late I will stay up tonight, but staying up until 4 and trying to wake up at 6 is not as fun as it sounds (and it does not sound very fun at all). My study anthem is Tokyo Police Club's song, "Citizens of Tomorrow." It just so happens to be perfect because it is a "futuristic" song set in 2009 where everyone is enslaved by robots, and I am studying American politics.

For my exam:
"Has the modern presidency gained too much power? Support your answer with examples from specific actions of modern presidents.
Modern presidencies now enslave boys and girls by forcing them to build spaceships at night while our robot masters attempt to clean up the ruins of the old world. They now put microchips in our heart so we can't run away and they can blow us apart at their discretion. In my opinion, that is way to much power."


But seriously, at this point I'm not even sure if I want to study it anymore. I also have another exam that same week for my oceanography class, which means I should start doing the readings and watching the lectures. I started the quarter off really strong, and I was about two weeks ahead in all of my classes, but somehow I am barely keeping up with everything now. This quarter has passed by so quickly, and soon I'll be worrying about finals and then trying to relax over spring break.

Did I ever mention that I might be graduating from the University of Washington by the time I'm 20? That is, if I figure out a major and work really hard to get all of the credits finished, and take summer quarters. Which is entirely possible. I like political science, and specifically American politics. I find it fascinating. But, on the other hand, I am now extremely freaked out and I feel like I'm already having a mid-life crisis. I mean, in my class we discuss President Bush's 2000 election, which was barely 9 years ago, and I was ten years old at the time. I was in fifth grade! That was barely half of my entire lifetime ago. I feel really young and now I'm supposed to decide what I'm going to do for the rest of my life right now.

I know I talk about this a lot, but I am simply not okay with finding a career that will only result in money, not a feeling of accomplishment, worth, beauty, or honesty. My sister and my mom actually tried to convince me to consider a business major, at which point I just started sobbing and saying that it isn't fair. A completely childlife reaction, I am aware, but legitimate all the same. I want a job where I can utilize all of my abilities. I want to use my mind and my body, and at the end of the day I want to feel like everything was worth it. I'm terrified with the idea that someday, I will be couped up in a cubicle and that I won't even remember having ever writing this or feeling this way.

I know that I act responsible, but I'm not. I'm a terrified child extremely opposed to being forced to grow up.

In the meantime, I'll be getting back to studying. As soon as next week is over, I will probably start trying to get more musical and less rantical.

2.17.2009

Postcards From Italy

I never noticed before, but I actually really get annoyed if people honk their horns at bus drivers or cut in front of a bus. (Well, unless a bus driver is a jerk or a horrible driver) I don't think I could ever do that. I don't think people should feel like they have the right to cut off someone else just because they think they can get by with that. A smaller car and a lead foot do not add up to Ass of the Road syndrome.

I am not really ready to post songs on here, just because I am so out of sync with music these days. I can barely keep up with when artists are coming out with new albums. And in some ways I think I am still trying to figure out what kind of music.

2.16.2009

Dull to Pause

Has anyone else noticed the ridiculously long label list? It's starting to bother me. I used to think unfondly of other blogs that had really stupidly long lists on the side of their page. But, I don't really know anymore. It's okay, for now, and I am too lazy to think of something that is nicer looking. I am aware that some of those labels are completely...ridiculous. I'm not sure if I really want to go through labels and figure things out.

Anyways, I am going to be going off today. I am...stupidly typing here because I really should be getting ready. I think I'm going through a bout of complete indecision; on Friday I changed my outfit six times. And normally I'm the type of person who throws things together and runs out. But to be fair, it was really my hair's fault. It screwed up the way everything looked. (Haha...I don't even know why I just typed that paragraph)

My mom has finally come around to the idea of becoming an intern for my friend Nancy. She's the same Nancy who created Carry5, and the one I've volunteered for for a few years now. A couple years ago Nancy offered me an internship, and my mom turned it down. Actually, when she heard about Carry5, she asked me if I was going to be one of those activists that get put in jail for rioting. Well, now that apparently I am really blowing through college quickly and should be thinking about internships and jobs, my mom has changed her position and wants me to take up an internship. I highly doubt she even remembers that she first opposed the idea of it.

I don't even know how that would go, me being an intern. I have a tendency for doing things that I think I can do, but in fact cannot at all. I don't know how I have gotten this far in life at all. Like becoming a barista without any experience, and I really should be getting ready to go. I will probably come back later and post more, but if not at least I posted this horrible rant.

2.15.2009

Freeze

I am still slowly rebuilding my music library. I finally remembered how, a very long time ago, I used to post my music on a site called Multiply. Unfortunately, it just so happens that the people at Multiply deleted all of my best playlists, before deciding to stop downloading music altogether, thereby saving their butts from copyright laws.


Thanks, guys.


So I'm left with picking over some of my more...horrible music playlists from several years ago. Technically I have two Multiply sites, one of which I am still currently using. Because of the limited space on the computer, I'm devising a system of rotation, in which each album or artist stays in my music library until I decide I don't want to listen to it for a while. So far, it has been going pretty well, although I have hit a snag on a 600 song playlist, when I can only upload songs three at a time. That's right, I will have to keep doing that repetitive task 200 times. I'm so excited.


And now I am becoming hyperaware of my Completist Syndrome. I have a horrible tendency to want full discographies of artists that I like, even a little bit. Which is probably why my music library is already at its limit; it's things like downloading 600 Beatle songs, or even the approximately 150 Death Cab for Cutie songs (although, to be fair, I legitimately wanted all 600 Beatle songs and have been listening to each one fastidiously). I don't even pretend to know what that is about. But I always go for the discography, and lately I've gotten into finding all of the album art, as well. Which is just great, because now every time I get rid of some album, I freak out about losing that album art off of my computer. So, along with uploading music on Multiply, I'm also uploading pictures!


I think that this has less to do with "Completist Syndrome" and more to do with unacknowledged OCD.


But in any case, I am trying to figure out some of the albums that have had the highest rotation throughout my lifetime. And I don't even really want to admit that quite a few of them are kind of embarrassing. But, because I know no one really reads this (and I'm just writing this to get me back into the swing of things), here goes:
  • Bush - Sixteen Stone
    I don't even know when or why this album suddenly became so popular to my ears. I used to listen to this alternative radio station nonstop when I was just turning into my teens. And, the majority of Bush songs tend to be from Sixteen Stone. Although I am not a particular fan of the band or the music genre, they still have some of my favorite songs ever.
  • Weezer - Pinkerton
    This one is really an incredible toss-up between Pinkerton and The Blue Album. I would think that the singles off of The Blue Album are the ones that most define my life (they remind me of one of my closest friends that I had...who I now sometimes refer to as an asshole and sometimes don't even remember for several months at a time). But there really is something to being forced to listen to a single album out of necessity (getting your library card revoked). Over time you just start to like it, even if you don't really want to.
  • Third Eye Blind - Third Eye Blind
    I don't even know how to describe (or justify) liking this album. Suffice it to say that I like nearly every song on it, much to my shame and embarassment.
  • Billie Holiday - Blue Billie
    This one is actually really interesting. My mom bought this album for my sister at Target, at total random, not really knowing if my sister would like it or not. Turned out, she didn't, and it sat underneath my mom's stereo player for nearly a decade. I pulled it out one day and decided to play it (because I had exhausted my own meager CD collection) and I've become extremely attached to it. Hilariously enough, none of my CD players can play it anymore, even though the CD is in perfect condition.
  • Something Corporate - Leaving Through the Window
    I have to say, this album was probably more of a forced liking than anything else. Being trapped in a hot bus on the way to Mt. St. Helens with only one CD kind of forces you to listen to it. And, ever since, it never fails to remind me of that field trip. Not that there was anything particularly nice about that field trip (like, nothing at all), but that is why it is listed here.
  • Broken Social Scene - Broken Social Scene
    Truly changed my life, but probably a bit more subtle than some of the other album favorites. Why do I like it? Because it is the best thing ever. Nothing left to say.
  • The Beatles - Help!
    I probably would have only paid particular attention to this album because of the movie. But, to be more serious, Rubber Soul is my real favorite album of Beatles, not because of any catchy songs or because of the best movie ever, but because it's a legitimately awesome album. Especially the song "What Goes On." (Oh, and it's amazing to listen to Sufjan Stevens' take on it! Oh jeez...in that case, the tribute album to Rubber Soul is also amazing).
  • Minus the Bears - Highly Refined Pirates
    The album that made me fall in love with music. It led me to be friends with three of the most lasting people in my life, and they were the first show I ever went to. They changed my life completely. Sometimes I just want to yell at people and say, "They will change your life!" Which also leads to me hating nearly anyone else who says that they like Minus the Bear.
  • Oasis - What's the Story Morning Glory?
    Amazing album, even if it was for a short-lived genre. The title track, as well, is probably one of my favorite songs ever. The beginning of it, too, with the helicopter, always reminds me of the movie Apocalypse Now.

There are other fantastic albums that I should probably mention, like The Shins' Chutes Too Narrow, or Fall of Troy's Doppelganger. There is also Of Montreal's Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?, probably my most listened to album ever. And, the two lovely albums by the National, Alligator and Boxer.

But that is all I really feel like writing about now. Hopefully tomorrow I will find something equally inconsequential to blather on about.

2.14.2009

Welcome to 2009?

A couple of years ago, this site was mentioned on Large Hearted Boy, a very well known blog that many people respect. And sometime between then and now, Hipsteradio has slipped into abyss. What exactly happened?

The success of Hipsteradio was due in large part to the authors who wrote on it as well. They were some of my closest friends in high school, and we enjoyed writing whatever nonsense we felt like. It also increased the amount of times we would check back on our own blog, and would consequently cause us to post more things. Over time, as some of our friendships weakened, we lost motivation to go back to a blog that just reminded us of something that isn't there anymore.

As the creator of Hipsteradio, I can't as easily turn my back on it. I have been considering whether I want to completely delete this blog. I can't.

So instead, I'll welcome in the year of 2009 and possibly get back to posting here. Although, this will be extremely difficult because my harddrive crashed and I lost all of my music. I am borrowing a computer from a friend (although by now I think it's mine) but it only has about 10 GB of free space for my music.