It's easy to get freaked out about extreme weather, floods, landslides, and tsunami's. I finally got around to ordering some emergency supplies. A radio/flashlight that is powered by a little crank, emergency whistles with a compass built in, water purification tablets, a couple of machete's, that sort of thing. I want to put together a good size kit, in case some bad stuff happens. It's just a matter of time! There's still a lot of supplies I need for the kit, but this stuff is expensive, so I'm spreading it out across a few paychecks.
I got up this morning and took my walk, though not as early as I would have liked. Not that I was useful this morning anyway. Well, a little. I typed in some excerpts from 'Crawling at Night' and emailed them to myself along with the zip file for IdeaGateway. I plan to work on IG today at work, and the majority of the stuff I would do at home, I can do here. Hell, I could do everything here, really. But sitting here paging through the books and typing up excerpts would create curiosity from my coworkers - "whatcha doin?" and I'd rather not.
It's hard to get up, lately. I have an easier time of it than Cindy does, but still. Hey, we're mammals. We're a restive class of creatures. We feed, we play, we breed, we nap. Mammals nap a lot. Dogs and cats and bears, lions and humans. We likes us some nap nap. Hey, if your den is secure, your babies safe, your tummy full, if you are warm and dry - hell, it's time for a nap. But we humans have all these plans and expectations. We want to write novels, design web sites, climb mountains, be rock stars. A full tummy and and a warm den isn't enough for us. I guess I'll either have to focus more on getting up as soon as the alarm sounds, or put the clock across the room where I have to get up to turn it off. It's too easy to just wack the snooze and pass out.
Cindy and I are gleefully anticipating getting an ipod shuffle. That will probably happen next month. And of course that will mean a big increase in our itunes purchasing. I have a feeling she's going to get more use out of it than I will... We'll probably use it at different times, though. I might take it on my morning walk, and she'd use it in the car and at work. We might start fighting over it though.
Odds are, we'll end up with two ipod shuffles. I like the slick, minimalist design, but it would be really nice to have a display on the thing. It's not necessary of course, but I've come to expect a display on music players. Next year, they'll probably come out with ipod shuffles with a display. Just to give us goodie hungry kids something else to buy.
Speaking of digital music - I was helping out at Cindy's store recently after closing. We put on a CD and were listening. We got to one of the later songs on the disc, and Cindy remarked that she hadn't liked the song at first listen, but now it was one of her favorites on the album. I thought about all the times that had happened with me. The instances where a song you initially dislike but grow to love is unlikely when you are listening to digital music. When you listen to a 15 second sample of a song and decide whether or not to buy that single, you're going to skip the ones that don't immediately appeal.
So there might be something to be said for buying the entire album, be it a digital download purchase or an actual CD. The art that I enjoy (and I'm including music) speaks to me in some way. Either it has something to teach me or it reminds me of some pleasant past or possible future. In the cases where it has something to teach, a listener may actually come to appreciate the musician's style more deeply, which unlocks appreciation of those other songs, like video game extras.
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