thom space

The more ubiquitous that the ipod becomes in daily life the more fault people find with it. Well not with “it” per se but rather with the way that it is affecting society. This Times piece goes into great depth on the subject. The argument goes: now that people have the ability to listen to their own music instead of the chatter of everyday life they are missing out on what it means to be civil, and further more are destroying the very essence of society entirely. The observation that those people whom choose to listen to their ipods are less tuned into their immediate surroundings is undoubtedly correct, but the inference from that observation that those people are less likely to be exposed to new, challenging, ideas does not follow. The fact of the matter is that some people are boring, they are going to be boring if they listen to their ipods or not, those boring people are not going to allow themselves to be affected by new, challenging ideas simply because of the fact that they are boring. On the other hand there are plenty of people who are quite vibrant, and who will be affected by new and challenging ideas regardless of whether or not they are listening to their ipods. So I guess I think that if the American society really is being destroyed the ipod should get less credit and boring people who believe boring things should get more.

It is nice to be able to look back upon events that were once very painful and see that perhaps a great deal of good will come from them. The event I am speaking of is the victory of Bush in the most recent election. If Kerry had won the chance of him picking Howard Dean as the DNC chair would have been slim to none, and as the case has turned out to be Howard Dean has been elected as the DNC chair and now for the first time in a long long time the democratic party has the chance to be a true opposition party with real ideas that are not just rehashed republican drivel. I can’t believe I am saying this, but it looks like Bush’s victory is going to make the country a better place in the long run after all. Here is a nice story about it from the Nation.

Interesting

My friend Harper did Yeknominc.com… internet changing site design.

Women rule.

and F*%k the poor. I like Bush.

I finally skied “the big couloir” which is something that I should have done a long time ago, but better late than never. When I signed out with ski patrol they said “it is as bad as it gets today”, which means the snow was rather firm, or rather it was “slide for life”. To give an idea of how steep 45 degrees is, it is steep enough so that when you stick your arm out from a standing position you can easily touch the slope. I was lucky enough to step out of my ski about half way down and then slide on my side for about 100′ before I was able to arrest myself, it was good for me to get that first fall out of the way early, but I will tell you what, if you ever want to get your heart rate pumping, have I got a ride for you.