Soma

so·ma
n. pl. so·ma·ta (-mə-tə) or so·mas

1. The entire body of an organism, exclusive of the germ cells.
2. See cell body.
3. The body of an individual as contrasted with the mind or psyche.

Every couple of months I get on a Smashing Pumpkins kick, usually listening to Siamese Dream (although at times it can be other albums). This time it's definitely Siamese Dream, and specifically (if you hadn't already guessed) the song Soma is what's driving it. God damn is it amazing.

The other day we had to knock out 80 shovel tests at Wildcat, so I tossed on my headphones, grabbed a shovel and screen and no partner (a shoveling partner at best speeds things up only marginally, and at worst slow you down considerably, either due to gabbing as with Ben or in the case of our new students the pace they can screen (although they're doing great, it's just a matter of time and practice until they're as fast as Ben or myself)). In the morning I decided to go with something with no words and a nice beat to work to, settled on Juno Reactor. It worked pretty well and I got 5 done, not a world record pace...and a tad below what I was doing in CRM, but with being out of shovel test shape and taking a little more time screening, not too bad.

In the afternoon I could feel some food coma setting in, so decided I needed something more active and flipped over to Smashing Pumpkins. I positively kicked ass in the afternoon, even though it was the shorter part of the day, I got 7 shovel tests done. I just demolished them. I'm sure I was a pretty odd image, head bobbing, body swaying, rocking out the shovel and screen. But that archaeology story is really neither here nor there. I guess the only way to describe how the music touched me that afternoon is "I rocked the fuck out."

It's strange the way our minds are wired...it was hotter in the afternoon, I was more tired, but certain buttons in my brain were pressed and my mood skyrocketed and I was spurred to greater feats of physicality. Which actually wasn't my intention by beginning this post with the definition of Soma...but I guess that it's apt. My physical body was the same, in fact worse off most likely. The only difference was the music I had on...and how it affected my brain and in return my body.

Which reminds me, I read "The Mozart Effect" back in High School...in recollection it was probably a pseudoscientific crap-fest. I should go back and re-read it now that my brain has been trained to look through the bullshit and determine what merit, if any, the studies linking music to health have.

But yes, Soma, Siamese Dream. I'm sure many of you I've told before, but if 1) I haven't or 2) you ignored me (bastards) go get it. Listen to the whole album, in my opinion the best of Smashing Pumpkins (my favorite of all those "Alternative Rock" bands of the halcyon days of my youth).

Internet dependency

So I used to think that I was utterly, horribly, and irreversibly addicted to the internets.

Now I know I am.

Okay, I lie...it just seemed a far more dramatic statement to make. In fact I've adjusted fairly well to my generally internet-less existence. I wasn't sure I'd make it, but here I am. Am I just older, and hence not so tech-addled? Perhaps working 10 hours a day has just left me generally too tired to even want to go out after work...much less spend 4 bucks on a smoothie so I can justify stealing internet from the coffee shop.

Either way I haven't been hooked into the internet so much...and thus have less fodder to fill this space with. Oops...sentence ending with "with." "...less fodder with which to fill this space," just seems pretentious though. I heard that they've confirmed that the Mars lander landed in some water ice (it sublimed over the course of a couple days of course) and that the soil would support earth life. So that's pretty cool.

The thing I miss most about not having the internet (or tv for that matter) is that now I'm totally cut off from my Cubs. I know you were all hoping I'd say "my ability to waste hours of time writing in this blog to provide you with 5 minutes of enjoyment," but I'm not that cool, and far more selfish than that. They're still in first place however, so I'm happy.

Oh the other thing I miss is being able to play TF2, or most of my steam games. Apparently I was in the middle of updating portal, and the HL2 episodes last time I was online...and as they're in the process of installing/downloading I can't play them until I finish (and the coffee connection is too slow to make that practical). I pounded through Medieval Total War 2 yesterday on an unexpected day off, which was cool if depressing to have spent so much time in a row. Played Mass Effect through the first couple weeks here as well. What a sweet game. It went too quick in my opinion (by the time I realized it was winding down and I should explore the side quests I was to the point when you couldn't deviate from the main plot anymore). And yes...the hot lesbian human-alien sex is, well, hot. (Well assuming you create an attractive human character to play; if you create a fugly one who do you have to blame?)

Okay so that tangent brought me to something I can actually rap about for a bit. When creating a character what sort does on create? There are 3 categories as near as I can tell.

1) You recreate yourself. Who better to save the universe than...well... me? The answer is "no one." That's how badass I am.
2) Perfect you. As a male this would be a ruggedly handsome, uber powerful able to rip dobermans in half but still able to take the time to pet a kitty sort. The Barbarian class if you will.
3) Hot chick. With this category you well...create a hot chick character. (For you ladies I guess you can swap the genders of 2 and 3)

I'm a 1 or 3 person, but I'm usually more inclined towards the third option; and it's not just because I'm a perv. Okay, I guess it kind of is, but if I'm going to stare at someone's ass for 90 hours of game play, personally, I'd like it to be an attractive ass. And for me that means female. I'm not trying to be sketchy or anything, but I'm a bigger fan of the female form than the male. I don't pick them in order to stare at a hot computer generated image for hours on end (I'm not that sad and desperate thank you very much) but so long as I'm already going to be staring at it...yeah.

Additionally it probably started back with Street Fighter 2, or whichever button mashing fighter you preferred. The female characters were small, light, and fast as hell. Those characterize 1) me and 2) my general style of game play. I've never been much of a tank, and in the halcyon days of my youth the lighter characters were females. Again the fact that they were easier on the eye didn't hurt either for this 12 year old boy.

I'm not saying that any of you guys out there who pick option 2 are gay...all I'm saying is that you might prefer to have sex with men...thats all. Not that there's anything wrong with that.