Get with it.

The 10/20-year life plan I came up with in the shower

 I do my best thinking in the shower.  You might have seen the Best Western commercials where the “star” of the commercial is flying a Boeing 747 or performing brain surgery and being congratulated on a job well done then admits that they just stayed at a Best Western, (on second thought it could have been a Holiday Inn commercial) and that they were able to do the surgery because of the shower they had in the hotel.

 Well I just had one of those Holiday Inn moments not that long ago but instead of believing that I would be able to fly a plane, I came to the conclusion I don’t want the American Dream.

White Picket fences

 I was never a fan of the 9-5 job or the idea of living in a house with white picket fences, having 2.5 children and a yellow Labrador named Buddy.  That’s just not my style.  There’s a line from an obscure song that goes, “he’s not strange, he just wants to live his life this way”, and it completely captures the essence of the epiphany I had in the shower.

 This lifestyle choice isn’t exactly mainstream but I also realize that I’m not the first one to make it.  I know that one must work hard to be able to do what they want in life, which is why I have made a timeline or a 10-year plan, if you will.

Roots

 The first revelation is that I don’t want to stay put in one spot for too long.  I never really had deep dug roots in San Jose or close ties with anyone here, save one – but we’re gonna save that one for another blog post.  There is just too much to see in this world and the fact that psychologically, I don’t have any hang-ups about just picking up and leaving puts me at a great starting point.

 So the plan really revolves around traveling the world, experiencing everything I can and stowing away each destination as a chapter in my life, then moving onto the next place.

Cry Later

 Now in the next phase we can talk about logistics – how I plan on funding this or we can talk about where I’m going and how I’ll get there.  Yeah, I agree let’s put off how I’ll pay for it till later.  So the idea is to start in one centralized destination and backpack or hitchhike (maybe) my way around.  I’m aiming for bike friendly towns – Portland, Seattle and Vancouver on the West Coast; Amsterdam, Paris and London in Europe.  Latin American countries definitely have their appeal for no other reason than siesta, the break all stores take in the middle of the day – I’m in love with the idea.  Barcelona, Rio, Cape Town, Morocco, Jerusalem – so they’re not all Latin American but you get where I’m going with this.

Ok, go ahead and cry

 So now how am I gonna pay for this?  Well even before that am I going to be able to handle all that travelling?  I’ve decided I’ll be submitting my application to the Peace Corps this summer and hopefully have all my paperwork processed by graduation.  After spending 2 years abroad, 3 if I go for my master’s degree the plan is to land the dreaded 9-5 gig for 5 to 8 years (non-profit, dealing with whatever I work in while in the Peace Corps, who knows…) work on getting some equity, a condo maybe – a house would tie me down with maintenance I wouldn’t be doing while away.  After working on building a nice little nest egg I’m shipping out hopefully with the girl mentioned earlier (easier to fund the dream that way) and its part-time gigs and freelance writing (budget travel magazines) from there.

 The nest egg is definitely nice to have in an emergency, but the lifestyle choice I’ve made is to live a low-impact, un-extravagant life.

 And that’s the abridged version of the long-term plan – come back for updates.

Pandora Radio

Just to remind those who've been too busy running around town trying to find a drug store that hasn't run out of swine flu approved surgical masks - Pandora Radio and the Music Genome Project lets users pick an artist then makes suggestions on music based on the selections you've already made. So, the more you use it the better understanding the site has of your taste.

Skimming through the site's About the Music page tells users about how two buddies put the whole thing together and a team of music fanatics have been listening to mu

sic since the start of the Bush Administration.

The evil known as Twitter

This is both insane and expected - one, for the unbelievable task of listening to myraid of songs and then rating each one how they factor into different elements (harmony, vocals instrumentation/elements Pandora calls "genes") and two, this generation demands it.

Now for a brief tirade on how rediculus the MySpace generation is. Give it to me NOW is the name of the song and they don't give a tweet how it happens, get it here now.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Y Control [HQ uncensored promo] from JungleBrothers on Vimeo.

So its here but how did it get here? Do people really believe in the Santa's workshop of music elves getting this Music Genome mapped? I , for one, don't.

The Connection, finally (damn your short attn spans 2 hell TWITTER, MySpace Generation)

Last night I was watching the MTV owned music video channel Palladia (MTV don't play videos, doo) And noticed the band The Decemberists had a video on there.  The next video was Evil by Interpol, then maybe not so coincidentally played the tune Paralyzed by Rock Kills Kid.  Guess what they were playing on my Decemberists station on Pandora, The Decemberists (good guess) and what do you think the benevolent music site suggested next - Interpol but not just any Interpol song, it was Evil.  Now that we're on a roll here you could probably tell me what they suggested after rocking out to Interpol, yessir Rock Kills Kid.

Hmmm...got me thinking (cuz yanno that's what I do when I'm bored) are they playing these songs on both media because Pandora has mapped this music genome and the songs or bands are genetically connected or is it a conspiracy cooked up by the slimy music corporate execs?

Now going over Pandora's About page didn't list any sponsors but they do have ads up and it is definitely not a non-profit.  Let's face it people in this industry its about the $$$

Well here's the coup de grace - the original radio allowed for bands to get their product out there to the masses.  When they started adding commercials it was an even greater force.  Give them something they want to listen to and then slip are message in between songs.  

Internet radio is an extension of this tool.  Both Palladia and Pandora use it to market more bands to us because remember the Myspace generation needs the latest thing streaming in as soon as it hits the shelves.  Think of it this way - the industry conditioned the Myspacers to seek out their product and to want to NOW and the music industry is making a boat load by putting out this product they're addicted to and can't put it out fast enough because of the rate they've conditioned the kids to want it.

P.S. sorry to go conspiracy theory on everybody just felt like going on a tirade.

Clearwater Revival

Ok so this isn't exactly CCR but it is a revival of an old blog. Geeze this generation is fickle isn't it - we're always looking for the next best thing. I use the word old to refer to a blog I started in September. Ok so the last update was in December, so what I like the way the page loads with the posts they way they are. Ha ha I guess not all of us are fickle.