Who Am I?

Following the last post, I thought you might like to chew on this. I didn’t write it.

Who Am I?

I am your constant companion. I am
your greatest helper or heaviest burden.
I will push you onward or drag you down
to failure. I am completely at your command.
Half the things I do you might just as well
turn over to me and I will be able to do
them quickly and correctly.

I am easily managed – you must merely
be firm with me. Show me exactly how you
want something done and after a few
lessons I will do it automatically. I am the
servant of all great individuals and, alas, of
all failures, as well. Those who are great, I
have made great. Those who are failures,
I have made failures.

I am not a machine, though I work
with all the precision of a machine plus
the intelligence of a human. You may run
me for a profit or run me for ruin – it
makes no difference to me.

Take me, train me, be firm with me,
and I will place the world at your feet. Be
easy with me and I will destroy you.

Who Am I?

I Am Habit.

Comparing Apples and Oranges

Quick update folks. I’ve got some good posts churning, but I thought I’d leave you this little kiss to hold you over. I really apologize for the sub-par posting lately. The deep thoughts will return.

Anyways…

Randall Munroe of XKCD has done it again, this time with his most controversial post ever. You’d be surprised how easily people get up in arms over fruit.

There are the banana shippers, the Kiwis who insist they’re called rock-melons, not cantaloupe, and those poor travesties who actually think grapefruit can be tasty. According to his blog (err…blag), it only took about 800 seconds after the comic was posted for his inbox to flood with angry messages from people who think watermelon is not overrated or that he’s an idiot for forgetting starfruit. This is an incredibly large internet phenomenon. Who knew how defensive we humans are about our fruit prefrences?

Where the heck is honeydew? That’s what I want to know.

Stop and think about this for a minute though. People are up in arms over this thing. The site has an incredible number of hits, comments, and links (including the ones here) stemming all from this one simple graph. Another blogger pointed this out and drew people’s attention to his criticism of the previous Monday’s comic, being unhappy with the sexism. Well, in reality he was being nitpicky about the antagonist not having a hat and the wording of the title, but still.

What does this show about the world today? We care more about fruit than we do about treating others fairly. We care more about voting for American Idol than we do for the next President. We’d rather write songs about how terrible the world is today than get active in the community. We’d rather check MySpace than help our little brothers with their spelling homework. I could go on, but I think you get the point.

What would the world be like if we just stopped for a moment, and thought about what was really important in the grand scheme of things? Think about how many hours we waste on things that don’t really matter, but that somehow end up high on our priority lists. In fact, make a list of the things that are important to you. The things that really matter. No, I don’t mean trying to prove to your friends that “Jump” is the best Van Halen song. I don’t mean five-starring “Run To The Hills” on expert. I mean the things that really matter.

Finished?

Look at that list, and then think about what you’ve been doing recently. Does it coincide with that list? If things seem a little out of whack, then you’re right. They are. I won’t lie, I’ve got a lot of rearranging to do myself. I challenge each and every one of you to do something more valuable with your time today. Take those three hours you watch TV each night and go to bed early, so you can get up early to work on that book you’ve been wanting to write. Pause in the middle of your game, and go make your sister’s bed. Do something to make someone smile, and then do something that will help get you closer to your life goals. After all, you only get one shot at this life.

In fifty year’s time, are you going to be able to look back on your life and say you’ve reached your fullest potential? For most of us, the answer right now is probably not in the affirmative. We can change that though.

I want to be able to look back and honestly be able to say I’ve lived a full life. How about you?

EDIT: Don’t forget a good start to the next as well

Daft Punk Being…Daft Punk

Love the Pyramid

Last night, Daft Punk did it again. The French duo that revolutionized the late ’90s and broke down musical barriers, continues to press forward. If you’ve been living in a hole for the past year, you won’t have heard about their mind blowing live show. For that I apologize. It’s reportedly head and shoulders above most any other concert experience in a long time.

When I say they “did it again”, I mean they broke down barriers and made us rethink the way music and the music industry works. Kanye West performed his song “Stronger” last night, which of course samples a good bit of Daft Punk. While Kanye may not have done much to it and is essentially riding on DP’s coattails, I must give him kudos for having great taste. He was performing at the Grammy Awards with a nice electro stage setup, complete with lots of neon and the silhouette of the Daft Punk pyramid. It looked to be a mildly entertaining set for about half the second.

Then Daft Punk showed up.

It’s not that common for an artist to make a “surprise performance” in the middle of the Grammy Awards, much less in the middle of someone else’s song. Keep in mind…this is a song sampling their stuff. How often is it that artists perform with those that sample their music? Not often. Not to mention this is their first televised show…ever. It was a great experience.

What really makes this interesting is that I realize just how smart Thomas and Guy-Manuel really are. “Stronger” has been a bigger success for Daft Punk than Kanye, and it’s on his album! Coupled with the mind-blowing performances and a live album laden with more artistry than most billboard artists have in entire careers, it’s launching these robots into the American limelight. Kanye may want to be the world’s “No. 1 Artist”, but all he’s done is catapult into the limelight the very same artists he planned to use as a springboard of his own.

Where will music go from here? Will Daft Punk’s influence be limited to hip-hop? Or will rock artists take an equal interest in the style? Daft Punk changed the way people looked at electronic music, and in fact music in general. They focused on the experience. They broke down every genre barrier there is. Their creativity knows no bounds, and they can improvise like John Coltrane on steroids. Will American music feel the impact of this French invasion? Or will DP just be a fad here, like so many other good forms of music that fail to be “poppy” enough?

Well, Daft Punk can “pop” with the best. I think it’s only a matter of time before America puts it’s own spin on their ideas. After all, we can’t let Justice, Digitalism, and Simian Mobile Disco have all the fun.

I don’t think Nine Inch Nails is going to have a stranglehold on creative, electronic-based music in this hemisphere for very much longer. Sorry Trent.

Watch the performance here