jddunn13

I feel like I've lagged quite a bit in cultural consumption this year, but I thought I'd put that assumption to the test with a review. Compiling it all bears that out, and I think the common theme is comfort food plus back catalog, both of which are probably excusable given the events of the past year in my life. I don't want this to turn into a trend though, and in the coming year I'm definitely going to take steps to get back on the horse and seek out new things.

There are also a couple of more troubling background themes: 1. Too much of everything. I just can't keep up with even a fraction of what's out there in media and culture and politics that I would like to, and the strain is starting to tell, and also to keep me from slowly digesting and really thinking about things, and even making me avoid taking on longer and more challenging media. 2. Feeling passed by. Especially in music, but somewhat in online media too, as I've never really embraced the Twitter/Tumblr revolution and the trend towards short-form, context-free, portable everything. Hell, I still have a basic dumbphone and hardly even text anyone. Also stuff like the Kindle holds no interest for me at all, though it could if it were different in crucial ways(pricing, open formats, touchscreen). It's weird, in that I'm pretty much the most plugged-in and culturally voracious person I know, and I still feel like I'm behind the curve most of the time. I'm trying to just stop worrying about it and do what I like, but since I have professional aspirations and pretensions of expertise in these areas, I'm kind of oversensitive about it. The new consciousness that I'm on the wrong side of 30 in a youth culture arena probably also has something to do with it.

( Books )

( Music )

( Radio )

( Television )

( Movies )

( Gaming )

( Online Video )

( Articles and Blogs )

( Sports )

( People )

Man, was that surreal.

Me on Nightline, apparently. What's the deal with the facehand? Ugh. At least I sounded ok.

So, some context. In the wake of all the weblog takedowns of media figures, Nightline decided to do a show on weblogs and how they relate to the media. I go to weekly weblogger meetings at the Berkman Center at Harvard, where we discuss these sorts of issues, and we were scheduled to have a discussion about "On the Record and Off the Record in Weblogging," and someone at Berkman had connections with Nightline, so they decided to tape our meeting for the upcoming show.

So, it finally aired tonight, and I was in there quite a bit, including being quoted as follows: "Everyone who writes a blog is putting other people, maybe without them knowing, into a public record."

That was from pretty much the only time I spoke up in the meeting, and it led the show. Weird. And it wasn't really the substantiative part of what I was saying. The discussion was about on the record vs off the record and weblogs, and we were bogged down in discussing the few, unrepresentative cases where weblogs actually approach being traditional media(and the Gannon/Guckert and Eason Jordan things, and what have you), and Dave Weinberger said as much. So, taking off from him, I suggested that we redefine on vs off the record in normal weblogger terms, in that Google is basically a public record, and anyone around you could basically put anything you say online, and what are the implications of that for us socially, what do we make of that in our own conduct, and so on.

But, one sentence from it happened to be able to be taken out of context to make a good lede, so there you go. It's so random though, what they choose to keep and what not out of 1.5 hours of footage, and how they go about constructing a slickly edited show from tiny bits and pieces of the real, rich context. It definitely works as narrative, but I'm not sure it works as good information or as an accurate reflection of what they're supposedly covering. For example, Steve Garfield made a longer video of the meeting, and what I had to say didn't even merit inclusion in his more comprehensive version of events(and probably shouldn't have, as it ended up being tangential to the thrust of the discussion.) I've got even more of an idea of the poverty of the current TV news formats when it comes to really capturing complex phenomena and presenting them well.

Also, I wrote an entry with extensive impressions on what it was like to have Nightline covering the meeting, how it changed things, why it was significant, and so on, in which I also just happened to refer to the host, John Donvan as coming off as "pompous and incurious." That part was of course what got quoted onscreen, although it was kindly not attributed to me personally. Otherwise, I came off ok... my verbal quote was reasonably articulate, and I didn't look like an asshole mugging for the camera or anything, though I could have stood to quite playing with my beard and being tense and such.

The story itself wasn't too bad. It didn't get too much terribly wrong, but it had the usual condescension and big-media scaremongering about how webloggers are doing journalism without a license and where will it all lead and so on and so forth. Still, better and fairer than probably 90% of the mass media coverage I've seen of weblogging, so I'll give credit where due on that.

Gay Marriage legalized in Masachusetts, May 17, 2004, 12:01 AM.

Pics from the gay marriage street party last night in Cambridge.

Current Mood: hopeful

( Se7en deadly virtues / heavenly sins )

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Music: Death Cab - The Face that Launched 1000 Shits

current mood: exhaustion
current music: Mogwai
current taste: Flat Coke and stale cigarettes
current hair: 1/4" of fuzz, greasy due to lack of time or will for showering of late
current dress: sweater, cargoes, flip-flops
current grievance: The injustice of finals week
current annoyance: the continued ineptitude of the Cubs
current smell: air
current stupid musing: no time for musings, stupid or otherwise
current longing: relaxation and sweet, decadent irresponsibility
current game: trying to keep my eyelids pried open
current thing I ought to be doing: studying yet-more biochemistry
current windows open: This one, Biochem350 page, my portal page, Eudora, Trillian, Winamp
current desktop picture: A galaxy of some sort from APotD
current favourite artist: Beth Orton, Automator
current favourite group: Fugazi
current book: The Possessed, by Dostoevsky
current cds in stereo: There are 101. Mogwai is playing at the moment, as mentioned.
current video in VCR: None. Last watched Zoolander I think.
current colour of toenails: Toenail-color, except one which is purple, from soccer.
current earrings: Nyet
current refreshment: flat Coke, peanuts
current worry: How will all of this work get done in two short weeks? And will I still find a way to enjoy my graduation and savor the rest of my time here, and see everyone I want to see before they leave town, and so on, and so on? Unlikely, which really sucks.
current malicious intent: I've never been much of a malicious intender
current misguided opinion: That I can do it all, somehow
current crush: Natalie Portman. Girl can write a mu'fuckin essay like nobody's business. [chauvinism]And she's really hot, too[/chauvinism]
current favourite (semi) celebrity: Yakov Smirnoff
current time wasting wish: Right now I'd just like to go on some kind of wild, nihilistic, two-week bender. But, I won't, of course.
current hate: The political climate, as per usual

Current Mood: drained
Current Music: Mogwai - O, I Sleep

You are Spaceman Spiff!
Zounds! You are the intrepid Spaceman Spiff, the engaging explorer ensconsed in an unending universe of exotic and evil extraterrestrials! You're brave, but you should give that dictionary a rest.
Take the What Calvin are You? Quiz by contessina_2000@yahoo.com!

Current Mood: restless
Current Music: Soul Coughing - Irresistible Bliss

Since everyone else is frivilously(or perhaps not so frivilously) posting their desktops, I'll take the opportunity to follow suit.

I took the background pic on the pennsylvania turnpike on the way out to Boston this summer. The rest is a little bit of tweaking of a default litestep theme. I like it quite a bit, thankyouverymuch :]

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: The Royal Tenenbaums sdtrck

Here is the result of your How Emo Are You? Purity Test.

You answered "yes" to 30 of 50 questions, with a total value of 30 points out of 53, making you 43.4% HAPPINESS pure (56.6% HAPPINESS corrupt); that is, you are 43.4% pure in the EMO domain (you have 56.6% EMO in you).

According to the scoring guide, your EMO experience level is: KINDA SAD

Current Music: Arab Strap - Packs of Three

five items you have brand loyalty to.
1. Desoto Records
2. Adidas hats(they're the only brand that fits me right)
3. Chucks
4. Dr Pepper
5. Dell computers

five (words or) phrases you use
1. "Jesus fuck!"
2. "I can respect that."
3. "not it." (whenever the phone, doorbell, etc rings, whoever says 'not it' last has to answer.)
4. any number of quotes ripped from the simpsons, lebowski, mallrats, and other similar sources of cultural currency in our house(yes, it's lame, but we do it anyway, because it's also fun.)
5. Pick a euphemism, any euphemism. We've probably uttered it at some point in this house.

five snacks you enjoy.
1. nuts
2. carrot sticks
3. m&m's
4. leftover pizza(ah, college)
5. E-Z cheese. Yes, I know it's evil in a can. Yes, I'm embarassed to buy it. But it's just so good.

ten songs you know the words to, even without the music.
1. John Cage - 4' 33" (hey, it's pretty easy)
2. Probably none... I'm not good at memorizing poems/songs word-for-word. I know fragments of hundreds

five games that you like.
1. tetris
2. trivial pursuit
3. zelda
4. soccer
5. basketball

ten albums that changed your life.
1. Yo La Tengo - I can Hear the Heart Beating as One
2. Dismemberment Plan - Emergency and I
3. Modest Mouse - This is a Long Drive for Someone With Nothing to Think About(these first three got me through some tough times)
4. Mogwai - Young Team(my first post-rock record)
5. Jawbox - For Your Own Special Sweetheart(my first indie rock record)
5a. The Pixies - Doolittle(my first Pixies record)
5b Nirvana - Nevermind(led directly to the purchase of 5a and 5b, and all the rest, really)
6. Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea / Jeff Buckley - Grace (re-affirmed my faith in the simple singer-songwriter with a guitar and a story to tell. Beautiful.)
7. Sunny Day Real Estate - Diary(2nd indie rock record, first emo/post punk record)
8. Fugazi - Red Medicine(first fugazi record)
9. Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks
10. Outkast - Stankonia(got me back into hip-hop)

five things you can't live without.
1. the written word
2. music
3. people/friends/family
4. the sky
5. hope

five good things to touch.
1. bark
2. my head right after I shave it
3. old, yellowing book paper
4. corduroy
5. hands

five things you'd buy with one thousand dollars.
1. music
2. books
3. travel
4. more music
5. more books
5a. monkey butlers

five things you've owned over the past ten years.(I've owned all of these things for the better part of the past ten... at least five years each.)
1. my car
2. my old pair of chucks
3. my computer
4. many of my books
5. my baseball glove

five of the best movies.
1. the big lebowski
2. contact
3. dead poets society
4. rushmore
5. pi

Current Mood: working
Current Music: Bob Marley - Three Little Birds

1. Coke or Pepsi? Coke, definitely. Pepsi is just way too saccharine sweet. It tastes like chemicals. "It tastes like... burning" - RW

2. McDonald's or Kentucky Fried Chicken? Mcdonald's fries are good. Other than that, they can both go to hell and die.

3. Pizza or subs? it depends. Pizza. I'm too picky for subs. Too many food groups mixed together at once.

4. Nintendo or PlayStation? Definitely Nintendo. All the fancy 3d graphics in the world will never beat the sweet and infuriating simplicity of Tetris. New games just don't do it for me. There's too much of a learning curve, too much investment of time required. All flash but no payoff.

5. One credit card or more? One, which I use basically for online purchases and plane tickets. I'm running like a $500 balance right now, which is way more than I like to. I really need to get a job to pay it down before sxsw, but the pickings are slim.

6. Photos of people or photos of nature? Both, though I probably have more of nature because I'm always afraid to photograph people, lest they get offended or creeped out somehow. That's probably irrational, yes.

7. In the car, do you listen to the radio or CDs/tapes? CD's, and occasional NPR.

8. Would you rather see a dentist or a doctor? Definitely dentist. Tooth cleaning(and occasional drilling) beats needles and turn-your-head-and-cough any day.

9. Did you watch the Super Bowl or not? No... I took a nap that ran too long, unfortunately.

10. American or non-American made car? American right now, but I really have no preference on the next one.

Current Music: REM - Leave

I don't think I really needed to take either one of these to know the result, but anyway...

Were you a gifted child?
Your Score: 97%

Test yourself at geekykid.net

The Grammar Test
Your Score: 92%

I am a grammar expert! My skills are certainly being wasted here on the internet. Perhaps I should become a teacher.
Test yourself at geekykid.net

What the shit is wrong with "I like books, movies, and cooking?" The second comma?

I always thought that was sort of a matter of personal preference. Maybe not. Oh well, grammatical rules are made to be broken, once you learn them, anyway. I broke more than a few of them in the previous two sentences.

Current Music: Jeff Buckley - Grace

Wow, I haven't touched this thing in awhile. It's been slim picken's on the memes lately. Anyway, I guess I'll join the herd and partake of a...

Friday Five
1) have you ever had braces? any other teeth trauma? Yeah, 6th-8th grade. I had lousy teeth. Like, such a big gap between the front two that I could whistle, in almost perfect imitation of an actual referee's whistle, between them. No appliances though. I've still got permanent retainers on the backs of them, though they aren't working so well, as the bastards are starting to wander again the last couple of years. I've also go a chipped front tooth, as a result of an unfortunate soccer incident involving my face and a goalpost.

2) ever broken any bones? Nope. Worst I've done is a dislocated finger. It popped right back in.

3) ever had stitches? Nope. I still don't believe that I've gotten off so easy, considering how many stupid things(jumping off bridges and roofs, sledding down dams, riding my big wheel down the stairs, bb gun fights, etc, etc) I did and sports I played as a kid.

4) what are the stories behind some of your (physical) scars? I don't have many. One on my forehead, mostly under the eyebrow, the product of a run-in with a tennis racket. A couple of little knee scars, from kamikaze bike wrecks when I was little. The only really visible one is on my right arm, the remains of a strawberry-like wound I sustained playing small-goal soccer on concrete. I kept picking at it, and it didn't fully heal for months, leaving a nickel-sized scar(which is now fading) in its wake.

5) how do you plan to spend your weekend? Studying biochem, reading Rorty, Tolstoy, and Rousseau, doing laundry, writing email and web stuff, playing pool, having a Super Bowl party(we don't really care about the game that much, but it's a great excuse to get together and drink and do other stereotypical male type stuff.)

Take the What Should Your New Year's Resolution Be? Quiz

1. Full name: jared dean dunn
2. Natural hair color at birth: blonde
3. Hair color currently: brown
5. Eye color currently: grey
6. Height currently: five nine
7. Glasses/contacts: yes / occasionally
8. Birthdate: 10/09/78
9. Nicknames: nope, not anymore
10. Current age: 23
11. Parents married: yes
12. Siblings: one / sister / 20
13. Location: my room, at school, which is over, thankfully
14. School attending: university of illinois
17. College planned major: cell & structural biology / philosophy
18. College planned minor: none
19. Any piercings: no
20. Any tattoos: no

~Social Life~
1. Best friend: garic
2. Girlfriend/boyfriend? no
4. Hobbies: reading / writing / web stuff / soccer / photography
6. Pager: no
8. What do you drive? '90 chevy blazer
9. What type of automobile do you wish you drive?: a newer more environmentally conscious, reliable one.
10. Who do you know personally that has the best car: no idea. most of my friends have pretty crappy cars, or none at all. I'm beginning to think that's no coincidence :]
12. Where is the best hangout?: our porch in the summer, the "situation room"(our basement room with bar / foosball / nintendo /etc) in the winter. Murphy's pub and the quad all year round.
13. Do you have a job?: no. currently looking again.
14. If yes, where?:
15. Do you like being around people?: sometimes yes, sometimes, not so much

~you~
1. Describe you in 4 words: right now - sick, relaxed, cold, content
2. Have you ever loved someone you had no chance with?: yes
3. Have you ever cried over someone of the opposite sex?: yes
4. Do you have a type of person you always go after?: um, smart? is that a type?
5. Ever wanted to get revenge on someone because they hurt you?: no. well, not for more than a few minutes.
6. Ever been lied to by a significant other?: yes
7. Do you want someone or something you don't have right now?: yes
8. Ever liked a close boy friend? no, but the opposite, yes.
9. Are you lonely right now?: no
10. Ever afraid you will never get married?: afraid isn't really the word. I'm pretty up in the air on the whole idea of marriage at this stage in my life.
11. Do you want to get married?: not sure
12. Do you want kids?: not sure either
13. If you could change somethings in your life, what would you change?: I'd redo the past 4 years with the knowledge I have now

~in the last 2 weeks have you~
1. Cried: yes
2. Bought something: plane ticket to Boston
3. Gotten sick: yep. i've got a post-finals cold or flu brewing
4. Sang: yes
5. Eaten: no. I haven't eaten in 2 weeks. sheesh.
6. Been kissed: no
7. Felt stupid: yes. but not due to school
8. Said I love you: yes
9. Wanted to tell someone you loved them but you didn't: no
10. Met someone new: no
11. Had a serious talk: yes
12. Missed someone: yes
13. Hugged someone: yes
14. Fought with a friend: no
15. Dreamed about someone you can't be with: no
16. Had enough sleep: not by a long shot
17. Something you love to say: i've been doing a lot of grumbling and sighing under my breath at various stacks of biology notes. not that though. I guess.. snow!

I haven't done a doofy survey in awhile. Here goes.

GENERAL
01. name? Jared Dunn
02. d.o.b.? Oct 09, 1978
03. location? My Desk, My room, 711 W. Green St. Urbana, IL, USA, Earth.
04. religion? Agnostic / Secular Humanist. Neither are really religions, but that's as close as I get. I'm down with the Universe. And the Mothership Connection.
05. occupation? Perpetual Student. Sometime html h4x0r and lab rat.

APPEARANCE
01. hair? shorn
02. eyes? grey
03. height? 5'9"
04. weight? 135
05. figure? Skinny. Some vestiges of past athleticness still remain, but they're fading. I need to get off my ass.

STYLE
01. clothing? T-shirts, cargoes or cords, sweaters unmatched, interesting socks, chucks or indoor soccer shoes.
02. music? Everything from Beethoven to Sid Vicious to Public Enemy. Focused toward indie/post rock though.
03. makeup? Not usually, no.
04. bodyart? None.

RIGHT NOW
01. wearing? black cords, orange long underwear type shirt
02. listening to? Hum - Why I like the Robins
03. thinking of? putting my house in order
04. feeling? relaxed, for once

LAST THING YOU
01. a Dr pepper
02. did? wrote a blog entry
03. ate & drank? Dr pepper, goldfish crackers
04. read? The Emperor's New Mind, by Roger Penrose
05. watched on tv? Parts of the Mich St / Arizona basketball game this afternoon

FAVORITE
01. food? anything bready / cheesy
02. drink? Dr pepper
03. color? grey
04. shoes? Chucks one-stars
05. dance? The worm. That's not really a dance though, but I can't dance for real. So.
06. vegetable? Broccoli, Carrots
07. fruit? Bananas
08. berry? I'm not a big berry man. Crunch? Halle?

( Error: Irreparable invalid markup in entry. Raw contents behind the cut. )

I am 51% EMO.

Emo Kid.

Well.. I've made the cut!
Now I'll go buy some promise
rings and knit myself a sweater.

Take the EMO Test at Fuali.com!

Goddamned blocky glasses and indie-rock crossover characteristics. Yeah, I may be "sensitive", and even like some of the music, but I'm not nearly maudlin and melodramatic(and scenesterish) enough to be an emo kid. I could probably play one on tv, though. I'll quit being defensive now :]

As I suspected, I am not much of a raver...
I am 24% Raver.

Have I even been to a rave? I'll go home. Loser.
I suck. Actually, I am probably just a normal
person taking this test and don't know why.

Take the RAVER Test at Fuali.com!

Or of a Goth either, for that matter...

I AM 19% GOTH.

I wanna be a GOTH. But I'm not.
Smoking cloves and too much eyeliner
a goth does not make. I'll go home and take
your Cure CD's with me.

Take the GOTH Test at Fuali.com!

Name: jared dean dunn

Were you named after anyone? jared is straight out of a name book, to my knowledge. the dean middle name is a dunn family tradition though, which is kind of neat. especially if you're my uncle, james dean dunn

Do you wish on stars? no. I stare at them a heckuva lot though.

When did you last cry? it's been awhile. I've been feeling pretty numb and detached lately.

If you were making a movie about yourself, who would play you? jason lee. actually, i have no idea, but jason lee is pretty cool, so why not?

Do you like your handwriting? Not particularly. It's pretty damned illegible. I hardly ever write out anything anymore, if the opportunity to type presents itself instead. That's perhaps a little sad, as there is nothing quite like the handwritten word, but for me it's just not very practical to do so very often.

Who are you jealous envious of? people who are strong, and have their shit together. who have confidence and direction and purpose. or are at least good at giving the appearence that they do.

What is your favorite lunchmeat? ham. yeah, pigs are filthy animals, but they're also tasty animals :]

Any bad habits? fingernail chewing, joint cracking, coke(the beverage, obviously)

If you were another person, would you be friends WITH you? sure, if i could get me to talk to me, which might be kinda hard as introverted as I tend to be much of the time.

Are you a daredevil? A cautious one, paradoxically. I've done some reckless things(jumped off of a couple of bridges, driven my car some places and at speeds I shouldn't have, pulled a few crazy stunts involving small explosives, toilet paper, fire, and so on), but always rationally and with safety in the back of my mind.

Have you ever told a secret you swore you wouldn't tell? I don't think so.

Have you ever stolen anything? Yeah, though mostly useless stuff that nobody seemed to want anyway. At least, that's how I've justified it to myself on the rare occasion that I have.

Do looks matter? Of course, on some level. And I don't think that's anything but normal and human, as long as they don't trump other considerations.

Do you pray? No. Sometimes I wish I could. Instead, I just end up talking to myself, or the wall, or the sky, or if I'm lucky, my friends.

Have you ever met anyone famous? Hmm... not many. Carl Sagan and Edward Teller at IMSA, but I was too young to really appreciate it at the time. My old next door neighbor might be pitching for the Giants within a year or two.

Do you think there's a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow? what rainbow?

Are you trendy? I certainly don't try to be. I've started trends, unwittingly followed them, and everything in-between. I like to think I'm my own trend, though how true this actually is, I'm not sure.

Are you passive or aggressive? Neither really. More passive than aggressive though, if I must choose.

Who is your idol? I don't really idolize anyone. As far as people who are examples for how I'd like to live and what I'd like to do with my life, I'd say Carl Sagan, Ian Mackaye, JS Mill, Bertrand Russell. People who do/did what they love, and do it with integrity and purpose and independnce and so on. Though it's corny and cliched to say so, I also really look up to a lot of my friends, my parents, grandparents, and so on, but not really in an idolatric manner either.

Who is your second family? My hometown friends, and the internet.

Do you trust others easily? Not really, at least on any kind of an emotional level, beyond basic trust that they won't hurt or screw me. I don't even trust myself all of the time.

What was your favorite toy as a child? books, transformers, dirt

What class in school did you think was totally useless? health was pretty damned useless for me too. Although I'm left with the indelible(and quite inaccurate) metaphor of the scrotum as "the body's thermostat." PE was awfully useless too. And chemII in high school consisted of lighting things on fire, playing paper football, and occasionally halheartedly reviewing stuff from chemI, since our teacher was totally incompetent. And I wonder why I struggled in chem here as a freshman.

Do you like sappy love songs? if they're well-written. It's a fine line, though. I like happy-sad songs more than simply sappy ones, most of the time.

Have you ever been on radio or television? Tv a few times. I've been on the local news a couple times relating to campus issues, and was on tv in the state spelling bee in grade school I think. I've accidentally made sportscenter at a couple of baseball games too.

Do you have a journal? only on my computer. see above about my handwriting

Have you ever intentionally hurt someone? No. I've tried a couple of times, when I was young and dumb. Luckily, I failed, and with luck I'll never be tempted enough to try again.

Do you like sarcasm? Does the Pope shit in the woods?

Do you feel understood most of the time? No. I think it's a combo of me being hard to understand(heck, I don't even understand myself much of the time), and being bad at expressing myself to others and making them undertand me.

Would you rather have a sore throat or an upset stomach? Throat. An upset stomach just tends to make the rest of me be not worth a shit either.

Have you thought seriously about committing suicide? In an abstract, Camus-like way. I could never go through with it. As much as I complain about it, I love life deep down.

What is your nickname? I don't have one, at the moment

Could you be a vegetarian? I love it as an ethical choice, but it's one that I'm just not really capable of, at least right now. I have a hard enough time keeping weight on even with meat in my diet.

Would you ever bungee jump? sure. I'd like to someday. It's on the list, anyway.

Do you untie your shoes every time you take them off? mine are rarely even tied at all, so probably not.

What are you worried about right now? molecular biology. smallpox. getting a job. life. death. the usual.

Do you ever wear overalls? I don't have any. I'm not averse to them, just not fond enough to go out and buy some.

Do you think you are strong? Sometimes. Far too rarely though. More often I think I'm too weak and lazy to really accomplish what I want to with my life. I hope that that changes, but I don't see how to make it happen just yet.

What's your favorite Popsicle? fudgicles!

Apparently...

I AM 35% GEEK.

I probably work in computers, or a history
department at a college. I never really
fit in with the "normal" crowd. But I have
friends, and this is a good thing.

Take the GEEK Test at Fuali.com!

Also...
I AM 32% PUNK.