infobong.com

hosed

Um, if you can't tell this blog is hosed. I should move to a new host, but I really can't afford to pay for professional hosting at this time. Yuck.

epistle to serendipity

I'm working on a final write-up for a research project, where I look at how moderation on sites like Slashdot, Kuro5hin, and Plastic may be used to enforce ideological norms in the discussions. I haven't moderated in some time, so I was a little concerned that I wouldn't be able to refer to moderator screens while writing. When I sat down this afternoon to work on the paper, I loaded Slashdot, and the top of the page informed me, "You have 5 Moderator Points! Use 'em or lose 'em!" That's great timing for me.

My idea is that although comments generally do not disappear, the comment filtering makes higher-rated comments more apt to be read, and moderators will tend to mod up comments that jibe with their own viewpoints, and since moderators are veteran users of these cites, the effect of moderation will be to generally perpetuate the existing discourses of the forum. I'm sure this seems obvious to anyone who's spent much time on Slashdot, but I've yet to see any papers that tackle this issue.

the dirty dirty dirty south

I just put on a remix of "The Way We Ball," by Houston's Lil' Flip. I think this is the only cut I've heard that gives a shout out to Arkansas.

I'm reminded of a station ID I used to hear on Tulsa Hip-Hop station, Fresh Jamz 105.3. Their transmitter is located in Bixby, a largely agricultural town outside the city. The ID asserted Fresh Jamz was "Broadcasting... from the hardest city in the world: Bixby Oklahoma!"

Bixby, OK

i thought it was called grad school

The Chicago Tribune reports American youth are maturing at a slowing pace, with adolesecent behavior extending far beyond the college years. "What tends to define this group, researchers say, is a lot of dating, hanging out, having multiple partners and using drugs and alcohol. It's a time of instability and excitement--and, yes, of being less mature," the Tribune reports. Some of their metrics include marriage and home-ownership, milestones I couldn't even dream of right now.

The post teens had better watch that dating and those multiple partners, tho. This Flash animation documents Sen. Rick Santorum's coming Department of Sexual Security, devoted to the war on deviance.

ask U 2 join my crew

Lately, I've binged on downloading mp3s, and I've racked up a playlist of mp3s from various sources that totals 5 hours 9 minutes 11 seconds. The other day, Jared mentioned he takes a certain "voyeuristic" pleasure in going through my archives, so I'm posting this monstrous list of horribly mainstream mp3s for your perusal.

Sonic Youth - Winner's Blues
Mice Parade - Headphoneland in the School of Old
nightoftheacacias
Postal Workers Canceling Stamps At The University Of Ghana Post Office
summertime
Nick Drake - Pink moon
white stripes - screwdriver
can you get to that
Sonic Youth - Hits of Sunshine (For Allen Ginsberg)
Crescent - *
16-This Protector
The Clash - English Civil War
R.L. Burnside - Going Down South
Social Distortion - Story Of My Life
Neutral Milk Hotel - My Dreamgirl
R.L. Burnside - Walkin' Blues
Belle and Sebastian - The Boy With The Arab Strap
Social Distortion - Ring Of Fire
Social Distortion - Ball And Chain
Social Distortion - Bad luck
Velvet Underground - Sweet Jane (full length versio
Black Lipstick - W.W.D.Y.D.
Velvet Underground - I'll Be Your Mirror (live)
Willie Nelson - On the Road Again
TQBF Camron - Hey Ma
Mountain - Mississippi Queen
Roxy Music - Prairie Rose
(Smog) - Natural Decline
Zombies - She's Not There
Silver Jews - Rebel Jew
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Green River
Faust - Miss Fortune
Rolling Stones - Last Time
John Cale - Hello, There
50 Cent - In Da Club (Dirty)
Grand Royal - Luscious Jackson - Deep Shag (
DMX - Its all good
Rolling Stones - Paint it Blac
Luscious Jackson - Naked Eye
Rolling Stones - under my thumb
DMX feat Sheik - Get At Me Dog
Sonic Youth - Hey Joni
Nick Drake - Hazey Jane II
spiritualized - Don't Just Do Something
Luscious Jackson - Citysong
Chemical Brothers - Setting Sun
The Stooges - I Wanna Be Your Dog
Spiritualized - Do It All Over Again
Daft Punk - Da Funk
Stereo MC's - Connected
Zombies - Time of the Season
Stereo MC's - Elevate My Mind
Canned Heat - Going Up The Country
The Fall - Repetition
Blur - There's No Other Way
Blur - Girls and Boys
Janes Addiction - Classic Girl
Television - Marquee Moon
The Fall - New Big Prinz
Happy Mondays - God's Cop
blur - Trouble in the Message Centre
The Fall - New Face In Hell
Palace Music - Little Blue Eyes
Happy Mondays - 24 Hour Party People
Jane's Addiction - Three Days
Autechre - Rotar
REM - I Am Superman
Experimental Aircraft - Symphony

snoop-style parlor room

The manager of my apartment complex has a blog. I found this more or less by accident, and it strikes me as a little strange.

Snoop Doggy Dogg has a blog too, appropriately titled, "Snoop Doggy Blog." (Beware: this parody site has adult ads)Today in Studio 4B, I mentioned the Snoop Dogg episode of VH1's Rock The House, which invites rock stars to redecorate the homes of unsuspecting fans. I mentioned Allison, the beneficiary of Snoop's mad skillz, loved the MC since he's really involved with children's issues. This raised some laughs, but the true cackling began when I showed them Snoop's Avocado-retro interior design.

april showers bring blogs

My professor for my Knowledge Management Systems class asked us to publish our research papers to the Web. I've posted my paper on diffusion theory and Weblogs here on my blog. Ooooh, the self-referentiality of it all. Download .doc file

alcohol is your sail

The Washington Post reviews the latest issue of Modern Drunkard magazine, devoted to irreverent discussions of the tippling life. It includes a review of 40 oz. malt liquor, something I could have used in my undergraduate days of Bull Ice. Here's an excerpt on the lost art of staggering:

soft as snow but cold inside

Just now I jokingly sent an email to a younger friend proclaiming, "Shoegazer will never die!" After I hit the send button, I wondered if he was familiar with the late 80s/early 90s genre that included My Bloody Valentine, The Verve, Swervedriver, and many other awesome bands. I decided to Google "Shoegazer," to see what would come up and discovered Meetup.com co-ordinates Shoegazer Meetups! I immediately volunteered to be a host.

three r's the three r's

Non-horrible Shockwave thingy that reminds me of The Fall's, "we dig uh repetition yeah, yeah we dig uh repetition, with repetition in the music then we're never gonna lose it, repetition yeah, repetition yeah."

defensive resistance

A Fort Lauderdale police officer pepper-sprayed a 12-year-old girl yesterday when stopping her from jay-walking. According to the WKMG site, the 5'1", 134 lb girl became angry at the officer and physically threatened him. "I had to choose between a physical fight and using the pepper spray," the officer told the TV news.

Buried at the end of the article, is an interesting tidbit of information, "Deputies seeking to stop accidents along busy Federal Highway have been ticketing Olsen Middle School students for the past several weeks." Now, this just seems like blaming the victim: why did they build a middle school along a busy highway and why is there no crosswalk or pedestrian overpass for the kids to use?

orwellian, dude!

British newspaper The Guardian has an essay up by American novelist Thomas Pynchon about George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. Pynchon notes the many correspondences between the world Orwell portrays and the information-driven, hyper-nationalistic times we live in, but suggests the ending of the novel is not quite as bleak as many make it out to be. According to Pynchon, the novel's coda, a faux critical essay called "The Principles of Newspeak", suggests that the regime has ended and language is no longer inverted by the powers that be.

Oh, its good to know Pynchon is still around. The last paper I wrote as an English major was about the appropriation of detective fiction in Pynchon's The of Lot 49 and City of Glass by Paul Auster. I'm planning to spend my summer reading fiction, and it seems that Nineteen Eighty-Four would be a great place to start.

our biggest export

Today I marched in the "Showdown in Texas" demonstration intended to highlight the role the defense industry plays in Texas' politics and the its economy. The highlight for me may have been when the march stopped in front of the local Fox Television office, and we chanted "Lies! Lies!" Creepily, there were men in fatigues watching the march atop some of the high-rise buildings along Congress avenue. I wondered aloud if we had a violation of the Posse Comitatus Act in our midst. Due to another commitment, I was unfortunately unable to participate in the "Caravan to Crawford," taking demonstrators to a protest outside Bush' ranch. Apparently at least four protestors were arrested at the action there.

represent a united austin

I just got an alarming email about the Texas Legislature redistricting plans. In short, the house Republicans want to Gerry-mander Austin, so no one in the US House represents the bulk of Austin. I've pasted the message below.

Despite the many budget challenges faced in this legislative session, the Texas House is revisiting congressional redistricting. An unconscionable plan, that is purported to have been drawn by Representative Tom DeLay, would rip the heart out of Travis County and end Austin's representation in Congress.

** No Austinite will ever represent a united Austin again.

** They have attempted to draw a map so that Rep. Lloyd Doggett can no longer speak for us in Washington.

DeLay's divisive Washington politics are now literally dividing Travis County:

District 10, which Rep. Doggett now represents and includes 80% of the people of Travis County, is moved by Republicans completely outside Travis County. Instead, the district would stretch from Llano to the New Mexico border. Travis is then split three ways:

(1) Rep. Lamar Smith (R) gets East and Southeast Austin, Hays and Comal Counties and part of San Antonio.

(2) Rep. Ron Paul (R) gets Pflugerville, Manor, and the Northeast of Travis County in addition to much of his current district.

(3) Rep. Henry Bonilla (R) gets the western half of Travis County, Blanco and Kendall Counties and part of San Antonio.

This plan, secret until released by the GOP late Wednesday, removes Rep. Lloyd Doggett from Travis County and ensures that Austin has no one to champion its interests.

This Tom DeLay "Life Tenure plan" ensures he will remain House Majority Leader for a decade, furthering his extremist agenda.

What can you do?

1. Commit to attending the only hearing the House will have on this plan, scheduled for Friday, May 2nd, at 2:00 pm upon final adjournment and Saturday, May 3rd at 10:00 A.M. or upon final adjournment. Both meetings are scheduled in the Capitol Extension, Room E2.036. The exact starting time of the hearing is still unclear because of the legislative schedule, but you will receive an update on Thursday or Friday with more details about the timing. You can also call the clerk for the Redistricting Committee, Jay Yates at (512) 463-9948 to find out more about the time of the committee meeting. If you can attend the hearing, please contact the Travis County Democratic Party at (512) 477-7500.

2. Representatives Elliott Naishtat, Dawnna Dukes, and Eddie Rodriguez have spoken out against this plan that hurts Travis County. If you live in a district represented by Representatives Terry Keel, Todd Baxter, or Jack Stick, call them today and tell them to speak against this plan and for Travis County's best interest.

Representative Terry Keel (512) 463-0652
Representative Todd Baxter (512) 463-0631
Representative Jack Stick (512) 463-0821


3. Call Speaker Craddick and tell him that you don't want the Legislature to waste its time on redistricting, but focus on the other important matters of this session. Urge him to drop the partisan politics engineered by Congressman Tom DeLay and to do what's right for Texans.

Speaker Tom Craddick (512) 463-1000

4. Call and email friends and alert them that the GOP is attempting to cut Rep. Doggett out of Congress and urge them to attend the hearing.

rabbit rabbit

Happy May Day everyone! The Guardian has pictures of May Day celebrations from around the world. And don't forget the Quakers' Showdown in Texas this weekend to call attention to all those yucky millitary bases and defense contractors in the Lone Star State. I'll be at the tower at 11am Saturday to participate in the Books Not Bombs march.