Thought of the Day (old)

Transported... MUTI takeover! 4-30-09

seventhswami — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 16:03:59 GMT

Tired of doing the same things in the same places? Then get moving! Thursday, April 30th, Dov, Nanda and SeventhSwami do a Muti Music takeover of the Transported Bus; rocking the Bay Area's best biodiesel powered bus mobile party. With couches lining the sides and a dance floor in the back this is no ordinary bus. We stop at 2-3 beautiful outdoor locations in the Bay Area for merriment over the course of a 3.5 hour ride. Dov, has been pushing talent on SF-based Muti Music for years and is known for his keen ear and diverse sets. Two of Muti's finest; Nanda and SeventhSwami will be playing recent, new and unreleased tunes for your merriment. Check out Nanda - Constant Change EP : http://tinyurl.com/d4aote SeventhSwami debut artist album," Here For Now " just came out this week: http://tiny.cc/PQQKO This promises to be quite a ride and a great way to get into spring. More about the event: http://transportedsf.com/schedule Buy tickets: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/62174 cost is $21 plus a small service fee. We meet at The Bus Stop Gallery, 135 Dore Street, Unit C, San Francisco at 8pm for check-in and our bus leaves at 8:30pm. This is a slight change from past rides. We return you to the same spot at Midnight. Our events are 21+ and BYOB. Advance tickets are highly recommended as our events usually sell out.

Here For Now... AVAILABLE NOW

seventhswami — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 06:41:04 GMT

http://www.seventhswami.com/herefornow/ This morning, my debut album “Here For Now” officially hit the streets (and by streets, I mean internet), brought to you by Muti Music of San Francisco, CA. Downloads are officially available through most online digital retailers like amazon or the iTunes store… or vist beatport for the highest-quality mp3 download The CD itself, (featuring album art by yours truly, photography by Paul Villinski, and logo by Chris Francisco) has been delayed in production, but will be available on JunoDownload, Saikosounds, and Beatspace in a few more weeks. Here for now also features vocal stylings by Souleye, Beatboxing by Psylence, Guitar by Kevin Phillips, and a remix by Genji. There are a few live shows already on my radar for the coming months (gonna be a busy summer), and many more to come! You can stay up-to-date on future events by visiting seventhswami.com… and while you’re there, look to your right for a free download of my ever-popular M.I.A. remix (Laser Planes) Feel free to forward this on to any of your friends or enemies (don't want anyone to feel left out) and thanks so much for all your support! ~Swami **********************************************FEEDBACK***************************************************** "What an Awesome Album! Some really fresh musicality going on behind the top class glitches & Mangling. This is probably my favourite Muti release so far, & considering the other artists on the Label that in itself is saying something:) keep up the great work & respects to the Seventh Swami!" - Seb Taylor (Hibernation / Digitalis / Kaya Project etc....) 'Muti further solidifies their reputation as a prime west coast outlet for downtempo electronics with this tight release. 'tornado dreams' and 'forever you forever me' are highlights, with their digitized focus and IDM aesthetic. thanks for sending..." - SHEN / Noah Pred (Native State/GSC) "LOVE the vibe on this .. It will appear in next weeks show The chill out room on BFBS radio(WK 15) 12 th April many thanks for the download.. nice ambient feel and feel-good vibe love it.." - HUMF - www.bfbs.com/chill "Heavy. Will be droppin." - Matt B (Bass Science, Tokyo) "[Seventh Swami's] mastery of form through such a variety of unique soundscapes is truly impressive, utilizing the best of atmospheric breaks, electronic hip-hop, and warped downtempo without appearing to stretch. Bits of traditional Japanese instrumentation occasionally floats up through the digital distortion and perfectly tweaked samples. The whole thing is still a hair shy of the upper level where Tipper and edIT live, but its very, very close. He's one more illusion destroying mushroom experience and another album away from greatness." - Pop Matters Blog

Burnlesque! (01-24-09)

seventhswami — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 18:55:55 GMT

*If you went last year, you know not to sleep on this one. If you missed out, here's the latest iteration for you. Pre-sales are highly encouraged due to limited tickets.* Saturday, January 24th Odd But True presents: Burnlesque! Burnlesque is back! Feathered Burlesque Beauties will heat up the night while Bay Area DJs shake the dance floor until the wee hours of the morning. Throw on your finest top hat, slip into your sexiest skirt, and come into Oakland to help raise funds for San Francisco Sex Information. 21+, don't forget your ID. Visual Treats: Cheese Puffs Les Moquettes Coquettes sarah. bowman. Audio Beats: Squelchy Schwa Bam The Fingermonsters Faye Valentine Mariposa Redstickman Chill Room hosted by: Ambient Mafia Big Sloppy Harken Olde Nasty Seventh Swami Hickory The Captain Boomerang Fidget Solid Sound provided by: Know Audio Sexy Lighting by: Radiant Atmospheres Doors open @ 10pm 21+, don't forget your ID. Location TBA on website, day of event. Cheap Pre-sales: $10 Limited Door: $15 Tickets, Info and Directions: www.odd-but-true.com

White Xmas Party update

seventhswami — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 01:17:52 GMT

the 2nd area (outdoor) has been cancelled due to it being colder than a witch’s titty outside. Therefore i will NOT be playing there this Saturday. Perhaps i will see you friday night at Chappy’s shindig in the city. =) Namasté, ~S wat?

E.B. White Xmas Party THIS SATURDAY!

seventhswami — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 03:30:36 GMT

sign up for the special email list at www.evilbreaks.com E.B.'s 3rd Annual Xmas party & gift exchange: White X-Mas Saturday, December 20th Underground Location (signup required) $5 with a gift to exchange $10 without a gift 10pm-7am Like the last couple "White X-Mas" parties, you'll get in on the cheap if you bring a wrapped gift valued between $5 & $10 for our little gift exchange. We've had terrific fun with this, and I'd have to say that this event has got to be one of the most interactive events of all time. & to really top off this years show, Bam is also going to be celebrating his graduation from "Expression" which is the night before. So if you see him, give him a congrats & a shot....haha. As always with this party, we will be limiting attendance to keep it smaller, more personal, and comfortable for everyone attending, the last 2 years we had to shut the door down by midnight. Oh yeah, wear white. DJ's for the night: Aaron Jae (E.B./Space Cowboys) Bam (E.B./Invibe) Mozaic (Nexus/Raindance) Little John (Raindance) Ben Haus (Acid Totem) 3L3Tronic (Bianca vs. Devo) Athena vs. Evinrude 2nd room chill DJ's: Mr. Projectile M.O.D. (E.B./Strategik) - special oldskool hip-hop set Tamo (Angels of Bass) Swami (Ambient Mafia) Dirt - Special sunrise set

Flaming Lotus Girls Fundraiser TONIGHT

seventhswami — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 17:13:11 GMT

Hey All, If you haven't heard already, the Ambient Mafia is teaming up with Evil Breaks to help throw a fundraiser for the Flaming Lotus Girls. They're totally destitute because of their last Burning Man project, Mutopia. This is TONIGHT (Friday). The party is at an awesome spot in the East Bay. If you get there early, we're only asking for a donation. By the way, we predict the party will be at capacity by MIDNIGHT. So yeah, get a presale or get there early! Actual Rafiq and Redstickman will be starting out the night in the gallery room at 7pm. The Ambient Mafia will be bringing the chill in the outdoor lounge starting at 9pm. Yours truly will be on from 12:30-1:30 with some crunchy dubsteppy hip-hoppy haw-flakes Come by early, save some $$ at the door, and enjoy the art. The event WILL sell out, so either get your presales or come early! Hope you can make it - we'd love to see you! ******************************** http://www.flaminglotus.com/party.html Flaming Lotus Girls and Evil Breaks Presents: In The Red! Gallery Show and late night fundraiser. Friday December 5th 2009, East Bay Location 7pm Gallery Show and Cocktail Party 10pm-6am Party! $15 door, $10 presales and before 11.pm Info line for address: 415.963.3555. Presales Tickets here Line Up: Fine Cut Bodies- Budapest (Chi Recordings/Record Records/Moving Target/FineCutBodies.com) Aaron Jae (Evil Breaks, Space Cowboys) Vs BAM (Evil Breaks) vs MOD (Evil Breaks) Mozaic (Raindance/Nexus) Syd Gris (Opel, Opulent Temple) JD (False Profit) Robb Green (Shameless) Ernie Trevino (Space Cowboys) U9lift (Ben Maybe/House of Lotus/Additech) Cumulus (Word-of-Mouth/SF) Lotus Drops (Street Ritual) Siren (Space Island/SF) Chillout door area courtesy of Ambient Mafia MC Boomerang Fidget (Live/Hatfyr) SeventhSwami (Escape Artists/Want It/Stilldream) Redstick Man (FNF) Peek (Below Zero) Shane (FNF) Harken vs Hallucid (The lag/Butterzone) Drop (Butterzone)

www.seventhswami.com

seventhswami — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 18:41:37 GMT

http://www.seventhswami.com The long awaited portal to all things swami.... Features Include: - ALL MAH MIXES! :: 13 full-length mixes ranging from eclectic to midtempo to psytrance! (yes, psytrance)... tons of stuff here to distract you from work. - MAH BLOG! :: i am still in the process of copying ALL 4 years of my blogs, INCLUDING EVERYONE'S COMMENTS, from myspace and tribe... so i will finally have all my writing in one place! You can even subscribe via RSS and create avatars! and it's searchable too! - MAH FLICKR FEED! :: a rotating slideshow of my flickr photos - MAH MUSIC! :: My forthcoming album will be sold here as well as other fine respectable retailers, lemonade stands and back-alleyways. and of course... - NO MORE DONUT FREAKOUTS!!! Very soon you will also be able to find: - graphic design portfolio and demo reel! - clothing design (not to be confused with "seventhswami merch"... of which there will be none (i mean COME ON!) - press kit Bookmark mah page sons, daughters, and others! Subscribe to the feed if you have a reader! (even the tempetmental rss reader in gmail works, hassel-free!) Make an avatar if you feel so inclined! The only down side is that it's not connected to the tribe community so i'm sure i'll lose most of my readers no matter what... but i gotta do my due-dilligence and BSP you people anyhow. =) (and you know damn well what i mean by "you people") =)~S

New Keyboard

seventhswami — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 16:55:30 GMT

I am fully prepared to take shit for this. Despite the fact that i used an apple IIe (my 1st computer) from 1982 til probably 1990... i really can't call it my 1st apple PURCHASE because my parents bought it. Saturday afternoon, after deciding against going to love fest, i ended up making my 1st apple store purchase in the form of Skinny Fucking Keyboard. (it says that on the box) Skinny Fuckin Keyboard is something i've been wanting for a while... and as vocally anti-mac as i've been for all these years, you'd better believe the shitstorm has begun. Do you know what it's like to have shit rain down on you every few minutes? It's crazy son! My whole reasoning for this move was to reduce the INSANE NOISE that i create when i type on my other keyboard. Because a) there's no reason to alert my coworkers to how long my emails are... and b) this one crazy lady here actually asked to be seated farther away from me because of my loud typing... The down side of this plan is twofold; 1) she's going to start noticing how loud i slap my mouse buttons (i swear my fingers are spring-loaded) and 2) i have to figure out a way around this missing print-screen button issue. (i use that a LOT every day for work, yo!) Shouldn't be hard though... there's many freeware solutions with customizable hot keys. and of course 3) the shit hitting my umbrella right now. Long overdue revenge from my mac-adoring friends. No guys this is not going to be "gateway purchase"... leading eventually to me converting to the dark (albiet, white) side... Fire away bitches. =)

On "HAW"....

seventhswami — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 19:06:03 GMT

That's it, i'm obsesseed. Wikipedia says: "The term haw has two meanings: In botany and horticulture, it refers to the fruit of the hawthorn (''Crataegus''). This fruit is red in color and is often eaten by birds [http://www.shee-eire.com/Herbs,Trees&Fungi/Trees/Hawthorn/Photos/haw-berries.jpg]. In biology, the nictitating membrane possessed by some animals is also known as a haw. See also Lord Haw-Haw it also taught me that HAW and GEE are directional commands for a draft animal... Urban Dictionary says: - A laugh; a form of retarded laughing. "This is yoooooouuuuuuuuuuu! Haw Haw Haw Haw Haw Haw Haw!" - This is a brilliant way of laughing, often brought up by people in a humerous situation - it is spoken or laughed! in a guffaw-type fashion and is sparsely used... - an interjection in common English vernacular used to express frustration or annoyance. "Haw! Can't you just shut the fuck up? " - Weird food you can find in uwajimaya or china town. Sweet, pink to red in color. It is said to be composed of rasberries or berries of some sort. Often bought as "Haw Flakes": hard, little, penny sized "flakes" of it. "Dude lets go be asian and buy some haw flakes!" - When a woman is having a orgasim ragardless of nationality she screams "HAW!", sometimes repeatedly. May also be used randomly as an entertaining add in to any sentence. It may also be used to confuse your enemy, especially if you pinch your nipples. - "Haw" appeared in an episode of Lexx as a means of communication to the bridge crew from an alien intruder. It has been since co-opted in Kelowna, British Columbia by Bill and Philly whenever they sarcastically or otherwise affirm the absurd or painfully obvious. Deriviative of hot. "I think I'll have a third kid... HAW" There is definately an overwhelming tendency here for "Haw" to be thought of as a crass form of laughter. So it's not just me.

My Cat... the Flying Squirril

seventhswami — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 19:26:13 GMT

Three of our best friends came to stay with us for the weekend to help celebrate Emily’s birthday. Along with them came a baby and 2 chihuahuas… Our cats were feeling slightly displaced due to this. But lately i’ve granted them unfettered acccess to the upstairs balcony so i figured i’d leave the door open so they could wander in and out and everyone would be happy. Not so… Early on Sunday morning Rudy decided to bail on our little party. Our apartments don’t allow cats to wander around the premises (even though several do anyway) so i check out the balcony situation thorougly and deduced that there was no way for them to get down from there… Rudy disagreed. I awoke to him yowling like a baby outside and when i came down to investigate, he was standing there by the front door with loads of sap stuck between his toes. Apparently he launched off the baloncy, right into the little fir tree or whatever that is outside our neighbor’s front door. Not sure if he’ll try this shit again but he seemed shaken up enough by it… i didn’t ban him from the balcony after that and he hasn’t jumped again yet… so we’ll see i guess.

Did Anyone Else Have a Weird Day Yesterday?

seventhswami — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 21:18:33 GMT

i'm serious. Starting Sunday night, shit has been off the hook. Sunday night i'm walking down the stairs in the middle of the night and i smell a sulfer kind of aroma... which caused me to pause mid-step or something and i slipped down like 3 stairs or something. "god damn ghosts tryin' ta kill me!" i muttered. But the next day, (yesterday) things continued to suck. I felt upset most of the day after i got jammed up by somebody, then on the drive home i nearly ran into a mercedes who braked hard in front of me. Only 2 blocks from the apartment, my heart was still racing when i pulled up to find emily sitting in her car with the door open and a frown on her face. Turns out SHE got in an accident on the way home too... in the same way. Then while i'm re-attaching her bumper, my phone rings. it's my mom calling to tell me that SHE got in an accident too! "Fuck" i thought. "Darkness descends and shit." So i talked to one of her neighbors who was able to go pick her up... she's fine... emily's fine... i'm trippin... how are you? I've asked several people this morning and a good number of them experienced a deluge of shitty luck and weirdness yesterday as well. One friend even said "I fel like somebody put a hex on me sunday afternoon." So just curious if you've noticed any weirdness too. it doesn't have to be BAD luck necessarily... just excessively DIFFERENT situations that you're expecting to walk into. Synchronicity. In fact that first thing that set me off yesterday morning was actually part of an intense 3-way synchronicity too. I wonder if more and more days like this will occur, the closer we get to 2012... if novelty increases as it's supposed to, things are only going to get weirder. I for one am looking forward to it (and welcome our new ant-overlords... lol). Like Hunter Thompson said "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro."

NO MORE ROBOT... and Jerry Seinfeld needs to stop too.

seventhswami — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 17:25:15 GMT

I think i speak for everyone when i say i am absolutely sick of seeing "the robot" done on tv... the dance move that is. Several years ago some marketing bozo thought it would be really awesome to bring that back. And since then EVERYONE has jumped on board. The Geico gecko did it (by REQUEST even)... Jason Lee did it on Earl... Bill Gates just did it on that shitty microsoft commercial... And just about every tv show has to have an episode where some person does the fucking robot. Ok listen... it was funny.... ONCE. This shit needs to end. You can't keep telling the same goddamn joke over and over, that shit was played out in the 80s and you people still think it's funny? I mean don't get me wrong... i appreciate popping and locking... it one of the best things that ever happened to life on this planet. So i'm not saying "hey quit dancing this way"... i'm saying "Quit using it as a gimmick on your commercial or tv show. It's OOOOLLLLDD. I don't want to see your crappy actor doing the same damn 3 moves again... (pause... lean.... swing arm)... And while i'm bitching... Jerry Seinfeld needs to stop too. I loved his show. That part was cool. But the crappy microsoft ad? BEE MOVIE??? Does anyone else here think that his voice-acting on Bee Movie was absolute shit? He sounded like a person sitting at a table reading lines into a microphone. Jerry.... seriously.... quit while you're ahead.

International Talk-Like-A-Pirate Day

seventhswami — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 18:28:33 GMT

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk_like_a_pirate_day Wow. I can't believe it's already been a year since i've been this annoyed. I should start "talk like a ninja day" in retalliation... just so i can have some peace and quiet. Ninjas don't email you with superlative bullshit... they just leave you be until you need killing.

Etymology of Slang

seventhswami — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 16:33:40 GMT

sometimes i spell something wrong and i like the goof-up so much i adopt the misspelling as my own custom word. Most recently it was "Aweseom".... i pronounce it "Awe-See-Ohm" and i use it when something is TRULY FUCKING AWESEOM. I used to get annoyed when people would type "hahahahah" because of that "H" on the end... somehow the H seemed lazy to me and insincere... "Breathy." But now i totally don't care. Sometimes i write "haaahahahhhha" when i'm in a hurry... Or sometimes i type "ahahah" instead of "hahaha" when i want to sound like the Count from Sesame Street. I don't care about being proper anymore. Fuck proper. Proper is so 80s. We type with our thumbs now while driving. We don't have time to backspace. Anyhow... i also used to hate it when people would say "HAW"... this goes WAYYY back to childhood and comic strips. When a character would say "HAW" it seems condescending to me... it reads like something a donkey would say to you. Recently Becky pointed out to me that "Heh" is kinda snarky-sounding too... so instead of saying "heh" i switched to "HAW" just for shits and giggles... but now i am totally addicted to "HAW"... "HAW" is the new "HEH"... i'm telling you. If you're saying it and not typing it, try slightly inverting the A and the W so it sounds kinda like "HWAH!"... kinda like how New Yorkers say "Hot Dwog".... it sounds EXTRA condescending this way, trust me. Funny thing is... this is how i end up adopting most slang terms that i use. I rarely pick up a new slang word because i like it from the get-go. Usually it starts with me and a friend mimicking someone who uses the word too much... after 1 week the mimicking becomes so frequent that there is really no difference. You are now using the word. A LOT. And after 2 weeks you come to embrace it. Like when "Off the Hook" came out... I couldn't believe how many times my friends Dylan and Cliff could say it in a minute and ACTUALLY BE TALKING ABOUT SOMETHING... Cliff: Here dude. (handing the bong to dylan) off the hook --(Translation: you're right. this pot is marvelous) Dylan: oh man... (declining the handoff with a gesture) i'm off the hook. --(Translation: no thank you. I am already very high) Cliff: Is you off the hook? --(Are you serious?) Dylan: I'm off the hook. --(Yes) Cliff: Damn that's off the hook. --(Yes. Wow. This weed is remarkable!) Me: Off the hook... --(You clowns are fucking retarded) A week of mimicking this shit led to me using it just as frequently for almost a year. This is what linguist Martin Edwardes refers to as a "portmanteau word"... a word that can be used in place of any other concrete noun... (or in this case, an adjective)... Portmaneau words are commonly found in the ever-expanding list of annoying business buzzwords... A great example of this is the word "Leverage"... "Leverage" is not a fucking verb. But it is used around the office here as such... and about as frequently as "off the hook" was used by my friends... "hey can you leverage the circles on slide 6?" What the fuck does that even mean? Do you want me to apply the color and stroke-width of the circle theme elsewhere? Do you want me to apply force to them with a bar or lever? Or do you want me to take the look and feel of the circles and use them to apply leverage to my argument that this project sucks? -Edwardes: "Just as whatsit can be used in place of any other concrete noun, so leverage can be used in place of almost any activity verb. This, of course, can lead to confusion (as is the case for whatsit): if an organisation is “leveraging a project” we cannot know, without other defining reference, whether they are starting it, ending it, or performing some intermediate process. But, at the same time, this obfuscatory aspect of the verb is an important part of its function and meaning ... It is one of the useful little white lies that allow the business world to keep turning.” Here's a GREAT page from the author on the moronic use of "Spend" as a noun: http://leveragethis.wordpress.com/2007/11/01/spend-is-not-a-noun/#comment-104 And don't even get me started on "Capex." Just like George Carlin said... "When people want something to sound more important, they just add syllables... once i heard the weatherman talk about a 'rain event'... 'man' i thought... 'i gotta get tickets to THAT!'" Leverage --(alternatively: "use") Spend --(alternatively: "cost") Decisioning --(alternatively: "making choices") EOD and COB --(alternatively: "5:00") Bandwidth --(alternatively: "free time") Eyeballs --(alternatively: "visitors") Sync-up --(alternatively: "meet") Heh... or HAW, rather... Language is full of fun games, plays-on-words, pet-peeves and hoity-toity rules. There are even full "portmanteau" sentences! My least favorite of which is "Working Hard or Hardly Working?".... At first glance, it's a simple play on words... the joke and the punchline in one sentence... but we've all heard it a million times now. So It's BECOME the catch-phrase of every corporate asshat who has nothing productive to say and nothing real to talk about. It's a shortcut-to-thinking and is, in it's very essence, nothing but slang... Just like Joe Executive who passes you in the hall and says "Another day in paradise?" Yes asshole. I mean No. Say something of substance. Make conversation. Even if you said "TGIF" it would at least tell me a bit about how you feel, who you are, and what day it is. Thanks for wasting my time. Your shit's off the hook, fo RILLA.

Top Ramen vs. Cup O Noodles

seventhswami — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 22:48:57 GMT

which is it gonna be? And don't say "neither".... Don't play like you're above eating teh instant noodles... you know damn well you've done it... and you know you have an opinion too.

It's nice to be Understood

seventhswami — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 00:39:40 GMT

On this blog i have talked about my recurring anxiety problems... the edginess... the weird physical symptoms... the fears of the symptoms being "something else that the doctors can't see"... and of course the general vicious circle related to this type of hypochondria. Well recently i was dealing with this weird arm pain... lasted 2 weeks... on my left side... and of course you KNOW that triggered panic for me because left-arm-pain is so commonly synonymous with heart attacks... Well on a whim i googled "anxiety and arm pain" and found this link: http://www.medhelp.org/forums/AnxietySupport/messages/147.html (it takes a second for the article to appear... just wait a sec... don't give up!) just like most of hte people in the comments... i have a tendency not to BELIEVE what the dr says and always worry it's my heart... and i always feel stupid and embarrassed that i can't stop obsessing... it's nice to read a list of people going through the EXACT same thing... and like one person says "Reading forums like this really helps. I see people in the same boat and I don't feel so helpless anymore." Not that i don't listen to any of YOU... but you know how it goes. =)

Contact Info Outside of Tribe

seventhswami — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 20:01:51 GMT

Well as much as it sucks, the impending end-of-tribe has got me shopping for new social networking sites to occupy my time with... seems like facesnook is it (for now)... hit me up http://www.new.facebook.com/profile.php?id=720401607&ref=profile or email me at seventhswami@gmail.com with your normal contact info, if you give two shits about keeping in touch after this ship goes down.

Tribe Trouble

seventhswami — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 18:28:06 GMT

this was just posted to wikipedia: In the first week of September 2008, the tribe.net website was offline. A scheduled transition onto more stable servers was delayed by a missing hardware component and a failed SAN, following hardware issues that took tribe's Image server offline for several days in August of the same year. As of September 11th, 2008, Darren Mckeeman, the only paid full-time developer for Tribe.net, twittered: "Mark Pincus just cursed at me in email and I sent him back my resignation. My 40th birthday resolution was to stop tolerating verbal abuse." Reports of this interaction have begun spreading around tribe, with many urging that members back up photos and prepare for the next, irreversible, tribe outage. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribe.net

Gimme a BREAK

seventhswami — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 18:00:21 GMT

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/hot-or-not/hot-or-not-sarah-palins-alaskan-office-decor-061700 While on one hand i'm fascinated by the strategy of this ridiculous move, i can't help but throw up in my mouth a little. - I'm fascinated/sickened with how impressionable the general public is. - I'm fascinated/sickened with how transparent this move is. - I'm fascinated/sickened with how HORRID this bitch is. - I'm fascinated/sickened with how bad her shoes are in that pic. I'll admit, i have been completely jaded over politics ever since 9-11 (holy crap, that's today... weird) because i'd totally lost any faith in the voting process. But THIS election actually has me hopeful again... Are PEOPLE really still in control of things? We shall see. But yeah this palin shit is so over-the-top ridiculous... it's like a train wreck i can't stop looking at. It's like Carrot Top's FACE. She's like the Aries K of candidates. She's the fucking marlboro man. If americans are stupid enough to actually go for this, I will cry. Straight up. This Orwellian shit makes me really really sad.

Weird Obssessions

seventhswami — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 00:26:43 GMT

some people i know like to collect weird things. One friend has a large collection of pyramid-shaped charts... every time he sees one he grabs it and adds it to the file. I once had a similar fetish with what i called "the wheel of death" which is the generic chart asked for by every executive who can't brain worth a shit... ie: "we want to take this concept and illustrate it as a WHEEL... because it's a CIRCULAR process! oooh i'm so fucking smart and crafty!" I literally had about 50 of these things from different sources and they all looked the fucking same. (and they all told you the same fucking thing too... absolutely nothing) Another friend of mine started a flikr page devoted to pictures of grinning horses... which was funny in itself but then one day he upgraded to "fucked up camel faces" of which there are many, online. Well now i have a new one. For the past few weeks i have been obsessed with looking at pictures of Carrot Top. Yes. Carrot Top. Have you SEEN that motherfucker lately? Steroid much??? Look at his fucking SHOULDER http://www.x-rep.com/images/CarrotTop1.jpg ... is that SUPPOSED to happen? Now i haven't started COLLECTING these pictures, mind you... but i don't really need to. The internet is fast and it's all around me. Anyhow ... join me now in celebration of the newest wonder of the world... Carrot Fucking Top... breathe him in people... breathe him in. Nary an odder spectacle hath risen o'er this monitor in months. http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=carrot+top&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi&oi=property_suggestions&resnum=0&ct=property-revision&cd=1

God DAMN these people have some money

seventhswami — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 18:36:24 GMT

I just watched the opening presentation for this big corporation whose big conference i'm stuck at all week... WOW some people have a lot of money to blow. Imagine a 15'x30' video wall and 10 projection screens flanking the sides.... we're talking 10 movie theater sized screens... five on each side of this video wall... in between each screen are high tech lighting effects projected onto some other kind of screens... Then the video begins. A musical ABOUT the company, with 3D animation... hand-drawn animation... live actors singing and flying around on wires and composited into this VERY disney-esqe thing and it spans all the screens at once. And then just when you think you're about to turn into a pumpkin, the video wall splits down the center and a full blown choir comes out on a rolling stage... the music this whole time wasn't pre-recorded... it was the choir singing live... Over a million dollars spent on a 5 minute musical that will only be seen ONCE. I can't wait to see what the PARTY tomorrow consists of... last year the guest speaker was bill clinton and the band was Aerosmith. But the way things are looking i'll be stuck in my hotel room pushing buttons on my laptop instead. That's just as fun though. Hey and while i'm being random... check this out. Nice fucking expensive hotel room... 50" plasma on the wall.... NO HOT WATER THIS MORNING. You better believe i complained. I was curious if it was the whole floor or if it was just my room... so i asked this nice ukranian couple at the elevator "did you have hot water this morning?" They didn't speak English so well. The lady looked at me and said "you go... very fast.... POOF!" ... i'm not certain but i think she just put a hit out on me.

Ahem...

seventhswami — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 16:24:12 GMT

Anything good going on this week in the city? Anybody? specifically tomorrow night and wednesday night

Being Disfigured

seventhswami — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 19:51:30 GMT

There are a lot of things we take for granted in life... not the least of which is our physical appearance. I marvel at people who make permanent changes to the way they look without feeling anxiety over it. Your face is, without even touching on narcissism, a very important part of who you percieve yourself to be. "Residual Self-Image", they called it in The Matrix... We fundamentally identify ourselves by our faces even when we try to be so much more evolved in our thinking and our emotions. A select few of us may dream that they are other people or other creatures when they sleep at night but the majority of us will ALWAYS look like ourselves in our dreams. We say things like "the body is simply a vessel for the soul" and we throw around words like "flesh" and "monkey-body" as if we really believe it... But how many of us have had to deal with having that monkey body disfigured or mutilated in some way? I have had the benefit/displeasure of having experienced this first-hand when i smashed half of my skull against the asphalt back in 1998... A bike accident gone horribly wrong... I made my way back to my house with a concussion and rather than deal with going to a doctor, i headed down to Arizona for thanksgiving to visit family. I was basically ashamed at myself for letting such a stupid thing happen to myself and i figured that it was just a bit of road rash and it would simply go away... But by the time i got to Palm Springs, the swelling had gone down and i could feel the jutting edges of my broken skull as i washed my face. This caused me quite a bit of panic. I wasn't positive yet that my head was broken... in denial, i took advice from other people until i convinced myself that it was a blood blister i was feeling. But the X Rays i took when i got home a week later showed that i had broken my passenger-side cheek-bone nearly clean off. All 3 legs of the "tripod" were snapped... which includes the bottom of my right eye-socket. The doctor referred me to a plastic surgeon for further advice. This is where it gets ugly. I go to this plastic surgeon and fill out the paperwork.... wait for my name to be called... walk with the nurse to a room where i sit and wait for this guy to show up... after a few minutes he comes flying into the room and shouts "OH MY GOD YOU COULD HAVE BEEN A MODEL!" (a word of warning... any dialogue starting with this statement should be highly suspect) "But now you're DISFIGURED, see?" He angled my head for me and pointed into the mirror. "See how your entire cheek bone has been depressed? If you look at your face THIS way (turning my head to the left) you can see you have a prominent cheek. But if you turn the OTHER way.... (turning my head to the right) see how it's flat?" This is about where i started to pass out. Things were getting echoey and everything was turning white. He continued "so all we have to do is make incisions here, here, here, here, down here, up under your lip on the inside, and right here along the brow... and what we do is LITERALLY (emphasized in slow motion) PEEL your face back from your skull, re-break the bones and then we ACTUALLY (as if i wouldn't believe it) use REAL plates and screws to hold it together!" I wasn't impressed. I was losing consciousness. "Doc I can't see." I muttered faintly and he quickly reacted by sitting me in a chair and getting me some glucose in the form of peanut M&Ms. By the time my vision cleared and the room stopped spinning, i looked around and realized that he had led me, in that state, to the billing department where a lady was trying to get me to sign my name on a contract before i even had my wits about me. I remember kicking the front door open on my way out and going home to cry and smoke bowls in the back yard... for a month. Having that fucking quack reach inside my brain with his words and shut me off like that was (at the time) the single most horriffic thing i had ever experienced. I felt molested. I never believed for a minute that i "could have been a model" but one second i was normal and the next minute i was "disfigured." By some fucked up mistake on my part my face... the thing i use to greet people and talk to them with... was changed... broken... and this ass-clown with the forest green lamborghini implanted this knowledge into my head and completely flipped my switch. To him i was a sales opportunity and his selling point was my identity. I have the greatest respect for people who have suffered from disfiguring accidents and didn't use it as an excuse to withdraw completely. The urge is overwhelming. I certainly don't consider myself "disfigured" and most people who have known me my entire life will not notice the difference in my face unless i point it out to them... and even STILL, it affected me THAT badly. I can't even imagine what it would be like if it were something more obvious. A decade later, i never even think about my skull. I was told that my face could start sagging if i didn't get that plastic surgery.... or i could lose vision in one eye from the eye socket damage... but instead i chose to "walk it off" which was my solution to everything back then. I spent an entire month smoking bowls and being angry and i spent a year chewing with the left side of my mouth. I hung my X Ray photos up in my window with pride. I simmered my situation in a testosterone-reduction and shot guns and went drifting in traffic... THAT was my therapy. Today, i could care less that my head is asymmetrical... and this blog entry is evidence that i don't care who knows it either. I am glad i didn't go under the knife and i STILL hope that plastic surgeon rots in his fucking grave for what he did to me. Anyway... moral of this story... take good care of your monkey body... don't take your residual self-image for granted... because no matter how much you believe that your body is just a vessel, there is nothing so indescribably traumatic as having that vessel modified against your will. I once heard death described as "the moment where a living breathing individual is transformed into an object"... and having someone plant images in your head of your face being peeled off, or plates and screws holding your head together, is like previewing this experience up close and in full color. Who are you if you are not yourself?

Two Questions

seventhswami — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 20:31:47 GMT

1) How come glasses are so goddamn expensive? 2) When is it OK to pee on your cat?

What the Internet is doing to our brains

seventhswami — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 20:52:42 GMT

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google ---Quote--- "I come from a tradition of Western culture, in which the ideal (my ideal) was the complex, dense and “cathedral-like” structure of the highly educated and articulate personality—a man or woman who carried inside themselves a personally constructed and unique version of the entire heritage of the West. [But now] I see within us all (myself included) the replacement of complex inner density with a new kind of self—evolving under the pressure of information overload and the technology of the “instantly available. As we are drained of our “inner repertory of dense cultural inheritance,” Foreman concluded, we risk turning into “‘pancake people’—spread wide and thin as we connect with that vast network of information accessed by the mere touch of a button."