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Discoveries, finds, or otherwise identified.

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Music That Changed Your Life – A Follow-Up

A little over a week ago, I started a new little musical project: soliciting my reader base for the song that changed your life the most.

To date, I’ve received 18 responses that were able to be included in the list. Some of the responses were succinct (“this got me listening to electronica”), and some were very nuanced. At least three songs have had a major affect on me, so the project has definitely exceeded my expectation. So, huge thanks to everyone who submitted songs.

At this point, I still have room for a few more songs from the credit I’ve accrued, so if you have something to contribute, please feel free to drop me a comment or IM. Instructions are still in the original post.

A week from now, I’ll finish the project and include the song that most changed my life. I’m sure you can’t wait.

EDIT: I would be remiss not to mention an excellent new blog I tripped over that relates to the original post; please check out The Shins Will Change Your Life for the very best in cloying music reviews.

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Poor IRC Jokes Just Happen Naturally

First off, apologies about the Blosxom tutorial being delayed. It’ll be up soon – today was a bit kooky.

After an oddly-timed work day, I took off this afternoon for JFK, making my first ride on the Airtrain to get to the JetBlue terminal. Not that I was flying – I was merely meeting up with Suw for the short layover duration she had before she had to fly off back to London.

Having some time to kill when I got there, I logged onto IRC through my Sidekick so I could keep mutual friends up to date on her arrival. Now, IRC over the Sidekick requires going through SSH, and the signal in the baggage claim is lacking at best. Still, it managed to hold for most of the time I was waiting before arrival.

A bit after Suw appeared (the silly girl snuck past me, and then had to double back to find me), and we were waiting for her suitcase, I checked my Sidekick and noticed I had been knocked offline. I shrugged, not really caring to keep the connection open at this point.
But apparently I missed an unintentionally funny quit message, given my location:

[17:22] *** RemyAtJFK quit ("Lost terminal")

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Chapter 6

“Let’s start with the end,” Mr. Whittier would say.

He’d say, “Let’s start with a plot spoiler.”

The meaning of life. A unified field theory. The big reason why.

He’d say, “Lets get this big, big surprise over and done with.”

The earth, he’d say, is just a big machine. A big processing plant. A factory. That’s your answer. The big truth.

Think of a rock polisher, one of those drums, goes round and round, rolls twenty-four/seven, full of water and rocks and gravel. Grinding it all up. Round and round. Polishing those ugly rocks into gemstones. That’s the earth. Why it goes around. We’re the rocks. And what happens to us — the drama and pain and joy and war and sickness and victory and abuse — why, that’s just the water and sand to erode us. Grind us down. To polish us up, nice and bright.

That’s what Mr. Whittier would tell you.

Smooth as glass, that’s our Mr. Whittier. Buffed by pain. Polished and shining.

That’s why we love conflict, he says. We love to hate. To stop a war, we declare war on it. We must wipe out poverty. We must fight hunger. We campaign and challenge and defeat and destroy.

As human beings, our first commandment is:

Something needs to happen.

Mr. Whittier had no idea he was so right.

[Taken from pages 99-100 of Chuck Palahniuk’s *Haunted.]*