A Couple of New Features

I’ve added a couple of new links just under the picture of my face there on the right, pointing to other places on the web where I’m amalgamating information about myself that any good stalker would be interested in. For example, after letting my account sit dormant for a year, I have finally started using Flickr, so check out my Flickr page. It will surely become more interesting once I have settled in the UK and everything is new to me and therefore a Kodak moment. (A note about Kodak: what the hell are you doing?!? You’ve stopped manufacturing slide projectors, black and white photo paper, and Kodachrome Super 8? What’s next?)

I’ve also started using this thing called Audioscrobbler, which posts everything I play on iTunes to my Audioscrobbler page. It makes me think once again about the effect that publicizing these small quotidian gestures might have – for example, now that the link to my Audioscrobbler page is there, and therefore there exists a possibility that someone might click on it and look at it, I might be a little more careful about listening to Sarah McLachlan all day, because I want to seem super cool in my musical taste. You can be assured that what’s there is stuff I actually like to listen to, though in a while a more honest picture will begin to emerge, since I’ll forget the little scrobbler application is publicizing this info so that anyone who cares can see it. What drew me to Audioscrobbler was the “recommendations” it makes – based on what you play, it will recommend other artists that you might find interesting. It reminds me of my experience with Amazon. After purchasing a single book on Amazon, on my next visit to the site they cannily recommended several books and CDs to me that actually matched my taste, to my horror. (I’m so predictable!) Based on this demoralizing though interesting summation of my interests by Amazon, I thought I’d see what Audioscrobbler recommended in terms of music. So far, no revelations. I already know about and sometimes listen to the recommended bands. But perhaps in time a hidden gem may be revealed.