Right, something new

Yeah, I know, I know, I've been extremely uninspired lately. I've been busy with...umm...harrassing people on the boardwalk with a screaming rubber chicken.

Trust me, it's fun.

ANYWAY, I found this. It's special. This is one of the best things ever.



PS. Does anyone have a method of remote screaming chicken squeezing handy?

Invisible Children

As a few of you know, I've been involved with children-centric organizations for a couple years now. Most of my personal focus has been India, but recently, I've come in contact with a group of guys that are trying to raise awareness about an almost unrecognized war in Africa. I also discovered that someone I know taught in the middle of this war zone for a few years in the 90's, so there is confirmation that the information I've been given is not inflated for emotional appeal.

I know, I know...it's Africa. Most of us think they should change it to Warfrica or something. However, this has reached a point that is untenable to any human being. Why? The people are tired of fighting, but are unable to stop the war without help.

The rebel group has decided that since they can't get regular recruits easily, they will abduct and brutally indoctrinate small children instead. In essence, they are building an army of killer pre-adolescents. To date, over 50,000 are thought to have been abducted, but they have no way of knowing as the records are poorly kept, if kept at all.

Kids all over Northern Uganda are walking 5 to 10 miles every day from their homes to the major towns and sleeping on the streets, in hospitals, and in subway stations -- anywhere there's a government military presence -- to avoid abduction, torture, murder, brainwashing, and being forced to fight in a civil war. It's a horrific situation that is almost impossible to believe.

The problem is virtually unknown in the US and hasn't gained much global recognition, so we're doing a little something to raise awareness and get the world looking at something that's gone way beyond the typical African civil war. Not only are we showing the documentary on Tuesday night, there is a "Global Night Commute" going on next Saturday night. News crews will be there, so the more people, the bigger the impact. It's an all night event and there will be about 6 miles of walking involved (total). Follow the links for more info!

Anyway! Tuesday Night, 6pm, at Angies Subs, they are playing the documentary. If you do nothing else, it's worth seeing and it's free. I've already seen it, it's good and it will open your eyes.

Thanks!

This is the opening flier for Saturday. Anyone interested should sign up and contact me for details. (:

Tracy Goes International

I have an old friend that currently lives in the UK. We've been keeping in contact via MSN for the past few years, and she's constantly "up to date" on what's going on. Often, as I talk about people in my life, she's naturally curious as to what they look like. SOOOOO today, we're discussing one of my newer friends that she hadn't heard of before and:

Jeremy says:
I can show you pics of the other people I hang out with, but not her...maybe after this weekend. I'm trying to get her to go out with my group of friends instead of just the normal 1 on 1 stuff
Jeremy says:
one of them is a photo FANATIC
Jennifer says:
kew
Jennifer says:
thats that blonde chick right?


Tracy, people you don't know on the other side of the world know you. Take a bow. You've gone worldwide!

Truth or Comfort - A quote that made me think.

"In religion, as in war and everything else, comfort is the one thing you cannot get by looking for it. If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth-only soft soap and wishful thinking to being with and, in the end, despair."

C.S. Lewis
Mere Christianity

This struck me as I read it. I find, in my own life as well as in others, often we spend very little time searching for the truth and a whole lot of time searching for whatever justifies how we wish to act. Our lives are full of "grey areas" where we've said to ourselves "normally, this is wrong, but in this case, it's unavoidable"; Others decide that they do not subscribe to some idea of right or wrong or absolute truth because the idea of being held to such things is uncomfortable; It is an admission that we are not in complete control of our lives.

I find it even more interesting that many people who think this way do not think so after long soul searching and pursuit of truth, but rather as a simple evolution of living the way we want over the short span of our lives. We shy from that which contradicts what we want and adopt that which tells us that "business as usual" is quite alright.

And then we wonder why our lives are train wrecks, our relationships typically fleeting, painful affairs, and our satisfaction with what we have accomplished so short-lived.

This is not to say there is no such thing as a grey area or that strict adherence to a set of morals will somehow solve the world's problems. Neither of these would be true. It is simply that, as humans, we spend very little time trying to figure out what is right or true and a whole lot of time trying to figure out what makes us feel good.

Music

I was talking to a friend of mine about music the other day. We had both arrived at the conclusion that most of the music on the radio is utter garbage (not to be confused with the band, Garbage, which is fabulous!). The one good thing about it is that I can spend quite a bit of time "following threads", which mostly revolves around listening to a band and then looking at who's considered their influences, contemporaries or followers. It's turned up some rather fantastic bands.

Ok, ok, that and trolling myspace profiles out of boredom, but don't tell anyone. It's embarrassing.

So instead of posting a blog about how I got extremely pissed off today (pretty normal occurence, really) or some explorative musing into my current reading material (Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis), I will post some bands I currently enjoy that people may not have heard about as they don't get a great deal of radio play, if any at all.

I also apologize in advance. I don't write reviews, but I think it's kinda silly to just post a bunch of links, so you're getting links and a brief, if not very entertaining, synopsis. I also feel obligated to actually put something up as it's been a few days since I last updated anything.

Ladytron - Horrible name, but appropriate. They have a Retro Electronica meets dark rock sound. I've heard them described as "new gothic", but I don't really buy into it; not quite dark enough. I recommend their most popular song "Destroy Everything You Touch" and an interesting one "Fighting In Built Up Areas" which is entirely in bulgarian. Both of these are available on their site.

Imogen Heap - The front lady of the electronica group Frou Frou, she has a fascinating voice and uses just a hint of digitization at points to create some pretty interesting layers. My current opinion is that her solo work is much better than her work with Frou Frou. Check out "Hide and Seek". I think it's available on myspace. "Headlock" is pretty good and appeals to the minimalist in me.

Shiny Toy Guns - From the looks of it, this band is sitting just under recognition. They use a blend of rock and electronica fronted by equally talented male and female lead vocals. I think their only CD has made way too many rotations in my playlist. Their lyrics are a touch odd at times ("When They Came For Us") and they digitize the vocals in a couple places that don't make sense ("Sky Fell Over Me", a song about death), but overall, one of the few new bands I would love to see live; No Florida dates though. Song to check out is "Don't Cry Out"...actually, I recommend most any. I think there's only one song on the album I don't like and it's a remake of "Ritz".

Blue October - By all reports, these guys have "made it." I've never heard anything by them on the radio, but they're playing the Tonight Show, have done a song for a movie soundtrack, and undertaking a pretty big marketing campaign. Definitely in the rock category, the lead singer sounds a bit like Dave Matthews trying not to be such a pansy. Check out "Hate Me" and "Overweight"

The Rosebuds - Indie Rock. Jangly guitars, male and female leads and a keyboard. I first ran into them on Forbidden Planet. Catchy stuff! Songs to hear are "Boxcar" and "Leaves Do Fall", both available on their site.

Frausdots - Folksie Indie Rock with a male lead that sounds like he needs some caffiene and prozac. Songs to hear are "Soft Light" and "Dead Wrong", both available on MySpace.

That's enough for now, but I'll plug something else that I can't plug enough. Pandora Music Project. Put in a song or band and let them go. It starts feeding you "similar" music (theoretically). Registration is unnecessary for basic use, but free regardless and it'll remember your preferences. It's also a handy-dandy flash player, so no installing software necessary! Excellent for avoiding those pesky work rules for installing software.

_End_

So I'm supposed to write something interesting

I had lunch with my boss today, who's been encouraging me to write things other than analytical documents concerning search engine preferences and how to make them think you're grand. (As Maki said, I own a google hat) Being a fairly gifted writer himself, he said to start with a paragraph a night and see what happens.

Ok, pal. I'll write a paragraph or two, single-handedly butcher the english language and laugh gloriously as all of my english major friends cringe in abject terror and extreme mental anguish. In this case, I will actually reference my previous butchering on another blog where I created "meat chocolate" by forgetting a comma.

Commas are the devil anyway.

I swear.

Anyway, it reminded me of this company named Jones Soda. They have some pretty cool marketing concepts like putting consumer-submitted photos on their bottles and some fairly unique flavors. Unique flavors being the critical piece of this little rambling.

Behold! Meat flavored soda! What a glorious creation! Nowhere else can you satisfy your cravings for a tasty drink AND a multi-course meal in a single glass bottle. With an attractive, trendy label to boot.

Obviously, this was a limited release and no longer available. Jones doesn't want to be accused of monopolizing the dead animal carcass and traditional sides beverage industy. Who can blame them?

I have it from reliable sources (Frat boys and teenagers of course, as who else falls for the "you don't have a hair on your ass if you don't drink that!" line?) that it tastes exactly like you'd expect it to.

Very, very badly.

A very special note for the curious

Alt-0153.

Use it, love it, splash it around liberally for emphasis.©

Today

Tracy was mean to me. I am heart-broken, bereaved and unimaginably sorrowful.

True Story.

And now for something less psycho

My only inspiration of the day was an emotional shock to the system. I am now trying to avoid posting things like "I like cheese"

I think I'll just let this sit till I actually have something to write.