Here’s What I’m Gonna Need

I have been exposed to a lot of dark things lately. It’s starting to feel like everything is dark, and everyone’s all rotten and crafty and scheming on the inside. Like no one is trustworthy. And that can’t be true. I don’t believe that can actually be true. So why does it FEEL that way? As I was pondering this, it occurred to me that the people I know who are leading quiet, honest lives don’t necessarily go around telling stories about their everyday goodness and morality. They don’t have gripping tales of the lack of awful shit they got up to at the weekend. But the other people – they do tell stories. A lot of stories. And those other stories are so loud and jarring that there doesn’t seem to be anything else going on out there.

So here’s what I am going to need from you. If any of the following statements apply to you, I am going to need you to randomly, periodically remind me that they do. Just feel free to throw these out there, so I am not perpetually lost in a sea of the other kind of thing.

Here’s what I’d like to hear, if you can claim it:

• Today, I did not cheat on my significant other
• Today, I did not help someone else cheat other their significant other, and then claim that was not my problem
• Today, I didn’t lie to someone to make my life easier
• Today, I didn’t betray someone who loves me
• Today, I didn’t betray someone and then claim to love them
• Today, I did not betray myself
• Today, I broke no one’s trust
• Today, I made it harder on myself, because I knew it would be easier on you
• Today, I didn’t fuck up anyone’s dreams
• Today, I didn’t screw over a friend who trusted me
• Today, I stopped myself doing what felt good, and did what was actually good
• Today, I didn’t have sex with someone who wasn’t free to have sex with me
• Today, I didn’t have sex with someone who was unwilling to have sex with me
• Today, I didn’t rob anyone at gunpoint
• Today, I did not rationalize my bad behavior toward someone else by claiming I could not help myself
• Today, I did not hurt anyone’s feelings on purpose
• Today, I stopped myself from saying that thing, and said the other thing
• Today, I was not needlessly cruel
• Today, I tried harder

Because honestly, my people, I love you—but you’re withering up the last little sliver of heart I have left. There are some things in this world that I would like to have faith in. And if I am going to be able to manage that, I am going to need you to do better than this.

If you do not want to live in a world populated by lying, selfish jerks, try not being a lying, selfish jerk. You might like how it feels.

SOTD – Rasputina “My Porcelain Life”

Blah! I can’t find this song online anywhere to link to, so I will just link to a sample from Amazon.

It’s so quiet and calm and sad and lyrically lovely. I. Love. It.

You should buy this album, it’s pretty fantastico. Another song from it (Holocaust of Giants) is available for free download on Amazon right now, and I love that song too, so at least check that one out.

Rasputina “My Porcelain Life”

This letter you get it,
You burn it,
Forget it
It’s not what I meant to say
You might think me a scapegrace
Really a fugitive in decay
I exist here on an acre of nature
In the diminutive
But I’ll be thinking of you, I would wager
My favorite hypocrite

You are a master of the commerce of friendship
So I put all of my feathers on
I wrote you this letter, I’ll send it
When this foul weather is gone
Of your last words to me I am thinking
And of the depth of your eyes
But you can’t halt the profound shrinking
Of this, my porcelain life

You’re vexed that I reject your protection
Well I abhor captivity
I want to live alone in my little section
So very wild and watery
How to preserve my own mistaken perfection?
Or your refined vulgarity
I only tenuously ask you this question
Out of a sense it was for clarity

You are a master of the commerce of friendship
So I put all of my feathers on
I wrote you this letter, I send it
When this foul weather is gone
Of your last words to me I am thinking
And of the depth of your eyes
But you can’t halt the profound shrinking
Of this, my porcelain life

My porcelain life
My porcelain life
I find it very breakable
My porcelain life

Wednesday Playlist – Covers Better Than the Original

Hey kids! Time for Wednesday Playlist! This week’s topic – cover versions superior to the original version! #wednesdayplaylist

• cbellers – @superbadgirl Bangles – Hazy Shade of Winter, Lemonheads – Mrs Robinson, GnR – Live and Let Die
• H_Wallbanger – @superbadgirl It’s All Over Now Baby Blue: Link Wray & Put A Little Love in Your Heart: Circle Jerks
• cvbarnhart -@superbadgirl Lovage – Sex (I’m A); Siouxsie And The Banshees – Trust In Me #wednesdayplaylist
• p_tea – @Superbadgirl Green Manalishi-Judas Priest#wedsnesdayplaylist
• jeniburns – @superbadgirl Gary Jules – Mad World, Tori Amos – Angie
• jamietoonart – @superbadgirl Stripped – Rammstein; PPPLMGWIW, Deftones; #wednesdayplaylist
• trmink – @superbadgirl She Said, She Said – Black Keys (Beatles) + Born Under a Bad Sign – Melvin Taylor & Slack Band (Albert King)
• superbadgirl – Disturbed, Land of Confusion http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6KXgjLqSTg #wednesdayplaylist
• superbadgirl – I am also very partial to Placebo’s cover of “Running Up That Hill” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBlAdApfK9U #wednesdayplaylist
• cbellers – @superbadgirl Alien Ant Farm – Smooth Criminal #wednesdayplaylist
• stevodarkly – @superbadgirl – Unto Ashes, “Don’t Fear the Reaper.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ck4kyZQkSKs (Ignore images.) #wednesdayplaylist
• cbellers – @superbadgirl Sad Kermit singing Hurt: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcERe5pd8yI Will also go with Cash’s version. still better than NIN.
• drew_w – @superbadgirl revolting cocks-do ya think I’m sexy; sting-little wing
• trmink – The Gourds – Gin and Juice (Snoop Dog) http://youtu.be/SunrKwykK_Y
• Lorizs_tweets – Wasted Years by Damone #wednesdayplaylist
• cbellers – @superbadgirl Major Tom – Shiny Toy Guns #wednesdayplaylist
• hipntrendy – Love Spit Love’s version of ‘How Soon is Now’ #wednesdayplaylist Smith fans are cursing me I’m sure
• ZSB3 – @superbadgirl Come on Eileen by Save Ferris #wednesdayplaylist
• p_tea – @superbadgirl Thought of another cover that may be better than the original- Black Steel by Tricky #wednesdayplaylist
• Grave_Danger – @superbadgirl Ministry’s cover of “Lay Lady Lay”
• drew_w – @superbadgirl darling nikki by foo fighters?
• bengoldman – @superbadgirl Shaolyn – Face Down, Grendel – Zombie Nation, NIN – Get Down Make Love. #wednesdayplaylist
• bengoldman - @superbadgirl Not on that list: Sisters of Mercy – Jolene #wednesdayplaylist
• _bunny_ – @superbadgirl I’m fond of Johnny Cash’s version of Rusty Cage (Soundgarden). #wednesdayplaylist #imgonnabreak #imgonnabreakmy
• H_Wallbanger – @superbadgirl more songs: Joey Ramone’s What A Wonderful World, The Pogues Honky Tonk Woman & Justin Townes Earl’s Can’t Hardly Wait.
• _bunny_ – @superbadgirl Also, always thought Frente!’s version of Bizarre Love Triangle suited the lyrics better than the original. #wednesdayplaylist
• Grave_Danger – @superbadgirl Late submission, Love is all around you (mary tyler moore song) by Joan Jett

and my own top favorite cover of any song ever in the history of anything:

The World has Always had Color (Who Knew?)

Fell in love with this set of color Depression-era photos today.

It’s cliche, but you really DO forget the world had color back then, if only from the absolute glut of stark black and white photography that represents that era. To see these brightly colored dresses and red lipstick is to realize just how much like us these people are. The world, basically, looks exactly the same if we don’t have that stripped-out layer of color to separate us.

Two particular favorites:

Women workers employed as wipers in the roundhouse having lunch in their rest room, Chicago and Northwest Railway Company. Clinton, Iowa, April 1943. Reproduction from color slide. Photo by Jack Delano. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress

Mike Evans, a welder, at the rip tracks at Proviso yard of the Chicago and Northwest Railway Company. Chicago, Illinois, April 1943. Reproduction from color slide. Photo by Jack Delano. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress

Protected: Gefeliciteerd

SOTD Keane—Nothing in My Way

A turning tide
Lovers at a great divide
why d’you laugh
When I know that you hurt inside?

And why’d you say
It’s just another day, nothing in my way
I don’t wanna go, I don’t wanna stay
So there’s nothing left to say

And why’d you lie
When you wanna die, when you hurt inside
Don’t know what you lie for anyway
Now there’s nothing left to say

A tell-tale sign
You don’t know where to draw the line
And why’d you say
It’s just another day, nothing in my way
I don’t wanna go, I don’t wanna stay
So there’s nothing left to say

And why’d you lie
When you wanna die, when you hurt inside
Don’t know what you lie for anyway
Now there’s nothing left to say

Well for a lonely soul, you’re having such a nice time
For a lonely soul, you’re having such a nice time
For a lonely soul, it seems to me that you’re having such a nice time
You’re having such a nice time

For a lonely soul, you’re having such a nice time
For a lonely soul, you’re having such a nice time
For a lonely soul, it seems to me that you’re having such a nice time
You’re having such a nice time

You know what the internet needs more of?

Naked, skinny white chicks. Really, I would like access to more images of naked, skinny white chicks looking as if they really want you to fuck them, or looking dead, or looking vacant-eyed, or looking underage, or looking like they’re gonna do something sexy with another naked skinny white chick, or looking frightened or threatened or in pain. Or just plain old skinny naked white chicks with random sexyface. There is just not really enough of that shit. Naked skinny white chicks as art. Naked skinny white chicks as fashion. Naked skinny white chicks as accessories. Naked skinny white chicks as social commentary. Sometimes I think that when we went off the gold standard, our national currency secretly became based on naked skinny white chicks. (Images NSFW)

SOTD – Laura Veirs “Shadow Blues”

Laura Veirs “Shadow Blues”

There’s a shadow beneath the sea
There’s a shadow between you and me
I’ve learned that love is scared of light
Thousand seeds from a flower
Blowing through the night

Your blackened kiss on my cheek
Your blackened kiss runs river deep
A stranded fish dear, I’m on the sand
Blue water from a pool
Up to the clouds I’ll land

Though I am dark ‘bout the whys of wanting
Though I am dark, I’m still a child
Gonna dig a coal mine, climb down deep inside
Where my shadow’s got one place to go
One place to hide…

Friday Five things you’ve purchased in the last 30 days

Well fuck me running, it’s the #fridayfive! What are five things you’ve purchased in the last 30 days?

superbadgirl (that’s ME!) - The Safes’ CD “Well, Well, Well.” China Mieville’s book “City & the City” A root beer float, a brown dress, a steamboat ride. #fridayfive

UnclePilot – @superbadgirl Soap, car repairs, the video game “Limbo”, a pretzel dog, @joeycomeau’s “Unqualified” #fridayfive

jeniburns – @superbadgirl Um, yarn. and food. :/ #fridayfive

k_del - Batteries, bullets, stinky lotion, dog chews, your soul #fridayfive

bengoldman – @superbadgirl fancy hairspray, tree trimming services, nerd toys, a giant burrito, 10 mountain keeps #fridayfive

katatomiclabs – @superbadgirl A tire, wool, a bucket, pineapple and coconut shower gel, records. #fridayfive

H_Wallbanger – @superbadgirl sunglasses, wine, underwear, batteries, some records. Yeah, that pretty much covers any 30 day period.

violentecstasy – @superbadgirl Coffee, a leather corset, a scalp mask, cat food, the cheeseball dance-movie plotlines. #fridayfive

cbellers - @superbadgirl Guns, fire extinguisher, sex toys, yoghurt, air filter. #fridayfive

sub_english - A crib, Allegra Goodman’s “The Cookbook Collector, 2 pedicures, chocolate croissants, ice cream (so much ice cream) #fridayfive

lobsterchicky – @superbadgirl gel pens, pants, necklaces from the Joan Rivers on QVC (not joking), Nair (bad idea), McDs breakfast burrito #fridayfive

p_tea - @superbadgirl Gunpowder, dress pants (stupid work clothes), cloth tape, Lady Gaga songs, batteries #fridayfive

thatcesareguy – @superbadgirl Burger King, McDonalds, Taco Bell, Sonic, comic books #fridayfive

cvbarnhart - @superbadgirl Security+ study guide, Vampire: The Requiem books, 15 matching d10s, food, booze. #fridayfive

laurabean – Old school girdle, groceries, flowers, book, dinner @ atomic cowboy. #fridayfive

jamesblackwood – @superbadgirl size 6 wedding band, size 15 wedding band, wooden baseball bat, a beer I never received, pants #FridayFive

CDCyr – @superbadgirl Oatmeal, Riverboat ride, coffee, books, shirt

soupy – @superbadgirl car battery, vintage shoes that already fell apart, rainbow streamers, a sweater from the 1950s, a Dorothy costume #fridayfive

stevodarkly - @superbadgirl Dale Hollow Lake souvenir T-shirt, rum, drop-off laundry service, 5-hour energy drinks, max strength Zantac. #fridayfive

UnclePilot - @superbadgirl I meant @joeycomeau’s “Overqualified”. #sorryjoey #justboughtthebooktoday #OHGODIMTWEETINGFROM40000FEET #IVEDOOMEDUSALL

Lorizs_tweets - @superbadgirl books, fabric, iced coffee, shoes, fruit #fridayfive

_bunny_ – @superbadgirl Doggie treats, soap, new wallet, funky Vietnamese houseplant, new shaving blades. #fridayfive

Joule – @superbadgirl Ceilings and walls, a dress with a spiral on it, arcade fire’s new album, plane ticket, sno cones #fridayfive

ieincognito -@superbadgirl Vodka, whiskey, beer, lots of tomatoes and a spiffy dress #fridayfive

ZSB3 - #fridayfive Beaded slippers, Aveda shampoo & conditioner, sodas, food, garnet earrings.

(I think I got everyone. If I accidentally missed you out, feel free to just post it in the comments and not give me a hard time.)

The Boy Least Likely To – A Fairytale Ending

The Boy Least Likely To – A Fairytale Ending

When I was young I was valiant and bold
I fought off dragons and wrestled with trolls
I was stupid
But I was brave

I’m still as stupid as I was before
And although I’m not that young anymore
I’m still valiant
In my own little way

Limping off into the sunset
With our tails between our legs
Remembering how it all started
And wondering if this is the way that
My fairytale ends

I still remember how gallant I felt
In a suit of armor that I made myself
Out of tin foil
And milk bottle tops

I guess that I’m just like everyone else
I find it difficult to be myself
So I pretend
To be something I’m not

But in the end everything has to
Turn back into pumpkins and frogs
I wish that it didn’t have to
And I’m wondering if this is the way that
My fairytale ends
Ends

Limping off into the sunset
With our tails between our legs
Muttering quietly to myself
And wondering if this is the way that
My fairytale ends
Ends

The only thing I know from looking at you is what you fucking look like.

If you think you understand things just by looking at them, you’re not only wrong, but you’re also an asshole.

One of the stupidest things you can do is assume that I share your retarded fucking worldview. That we inhabit a reality that we both perceive in the same way. That my brain thinks like yours. That my body works like yours. That I want the things you want, enjoy the things you enjoy. That you know anything, even just a tiny thing, about my experience in the world. Because very often you will be dead wrong.

We are mostly lazy, intellectual short-cut takers, I believe. It’s easy to assume and presume and guess things. It’s comforting to believe in the version of reality that most conforms to our instincts. It’s simple to believe that we can know and understand things by looking at them. That common knowledge is real knowledge. But that’s horse shit.

Here is the one thing I know: I have no idea what the world looks like or feels like to you. We inhabit neither the same brain nor the same body. And that changes everything. I would like to believe that I have some fucking humility as regards that fact. That most of my conversations with you will start out – “Have you found that…?” or “Do you think that…?” or “Have you ever…?” That I will take the time to establish a baseline for our communication, and that I will respect your differences once we’ve done that.

I would hope that I do not make very many definitive statements regarding you, and how your world works, and how your mind perceives things and the way your body functions. I hope that I ask more questions and listen to your answers.

What I am really working for, what I want for myself is to more often say “I don’t know. It’s not my body, it’s not my life,  it’s not my choice, I don’t know. Explain it to me, and help me understand.” I want to know how your world works, and I want to know how it feels, but I want you to tell me. Teach me something, show me something, let me understand. But don’t ever fucking presume you know jack shit about MY world, unless I’ve taken the time to share it with you. Because I am going to end up thinking you’re a limp-brained, bigoted, mouthy jackass and I will have the empirical evidence to back that assumption the fuck up.

The Heavy – What You Want Me to Do

The more I listen to The Heavy, the more I love The Heavy. Fantastic driving music, this. And sounds almost as good live as it does studio.

The Heavy – What You Want Me to Do

I’ve been loved
I don’t feel clever
One mans weakness
Is another man’s pleasure
I got no feelings
I got no heart
Can’t make no sense out of this
But I got to somehow

What you want me to do?
What you want me to say?
How you need me to be?
I can be that way
What you want me to do?
What you want me to say?
How you need me to do?
‘Cause I can do that…

When I feel tender
Like I’ve been lost
Put myself together
‘Cause paid my cost to be the boss
Now I ain’t sleepin’
I aint slept
I see what you see here
But in this life
You give what you get

Here’s why T-mobile are a bunch of assholes

So, going on one year I’ve had T-mobile as my cellphone provider. I am rather “meh” about them overall. Their voice quality is shitty, but I rarely talk on my phone, so that’s not such a big deal. I am thoroughly sick of my myTouch, and want to hurl it down the toilet, but there’s nothing in T-mobile’s lineup with which I want to replace it, and I do not know that I want to extend my contract with them anyway, so I am stuck with it for another year. Its stupid on-screen keypad and attendant typo-storms= bleh, its tendency to non-responsiveness in times of immediate need= double-bleh. Its stupid non-standard headphone jack that I have to carry an adapter for at all times (replaced on later models) and its dumbass super-old Android OS which T-mobile has made NO attempt to upgrade… its horrible useless camera… did I mention the totally out of date OS they refuse to fucking update, so I do not have access to all the cool Android apps developed in the last year? Well, lets just say I am fucking sick of it.

But that’s not even why they’re assholes. Here’s why they’re assholes. Their asshole website “MY TMOBILE HOLYSHIT OMFG ITS ALL ABOUT ME!” and online payment center. They are such fucking assholes that they refuse to store my payment method from month to month UNLESS I agree to auto-pay. Now, most of my bills are auto-pay and I prefer it that way. Electric, gas, water, sewer, they all just magically deduct from my account each month and I don’t have to think about it, and that’s nice. However some bills, mortgage and telephone bills especially, I want to pay myself. That’s because telecoms have a way of suddenly charging you some weird amount with no warning. My AT&T (home phone and internet) bill is NEVER the same month to month. And my T-Mobile bill has gone up by $.40 every few months since I’ve had the phone. (Bill amounts have been: $90.65, $91.05, $91.55, $91.78 and now $92.01) Why? Who fucking knows, it’s a fucking mystery. Is the extra $1.36 breaking my budget? No it’s not. But it does tell me that I should pay attention to my bills and what’s on them.

SO ANYWAY I pay my bills on time. Actually, another reason that I like to not have auto-pay is that I pay my T-mobile bill really far in advance, because that works out better for me in terms of budgeting. The week that it’s due is the week a lot of other bills are also due, so I tend to pay it two or three weeks in advance of when it’s due. You’d think they’d appreciate a nice, bill-paying customer like me, right? But no, they don’t. Because I will not submit to their auto-pay tyranny, they refuse to store my payment info. Not my bank account number, not my cc info, nothing. They do this to make it awkward for their non-auto-pay customers. Not only do I have to re-enter my info every month (using multiple screens, and typing in a whole bunch of data they could easily store. Like seriously, the system doesn’t even auto-propagate my NAME. Here on MY T-FUCKING-MOBILE they have trouble remembering who the fuck I am, apparently.) I also have to re-accept some kind of “one-time only payment terms and conditions” screen. Every fucking month.

This is a pain in the ass for me, as my credit card is usually in my purse (downstairs) when I am upstairs in my office at bill-paying time. Since I switched to Chrome and lost google toolbar, I can’t even store my CC info there, and something in me cringes at having it just saved as a text file, easy to access on my computer. I guess I could do that. But that’s not the POINT. The point is not that I should be able to come up with some workaround for their assholery. The point is that their practice is unfriendly to their customers, and they’re trying to hassle me enough and make my experience with their company’s website so shitty that I finally give up and give them at-will access to my bank account. Which I will not do.  Hassling your customers into doing things only the way you want them to is NOT the way to engender brand loyalty, you stupid fucks. And every other website I deal with STORES MY PAYMENT INFO IF I WANT THEM TO.

I am sure some genius at T-Mobile is giggling in his coffee cup right now, thinking that he’s really come up with a brilliant plan to make customers sign up for auto-pay, and we’re too dumb to catch on to his clever scheming. But guess what, fucknuts? I am dropping you assholes next year for making my life more irritating than it needs to be.

Wednesday Playlist – Earworms Edition

OK kids, I hate to do this to you, but today’s #wednesdayplaylist is “Earworms!” What songs get stuck in your head? (suggested by @zsb3)

superbadgirl – I don’t know if this is technically an earworm, but if I am not listening to other music, I will automatically start humming the Doris Day version of “Que Sera Sera.” #wednesdayplaylist

cbellers – @superbadgirl humptey dance, digital underground. #wednesdayplaylist

_bunny_ – @cbellers See, and now that’s playing in my head. Could be worse, I suppose. #wednesdayplaylist

cvbarnhart – @superbadgirl Lesley Gore – Sunshine Lollipops and Rainbows; Andy Griffith – The Fishin’ Hole; mc chris – Smackababy. Also, The Turtles – Happy Together #wednesdayplaylist

p_tea - @superbadgirl I heard this song once and it was stuck in my head for days: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwE-SLnLkqY #wednesdayplaylist

Lorizs_tweets – Stopwatch Hearts by Delerium #wednesdayplaylist

stevodarkly – @superbadgirl Lately my earworms are 2 songs by The Urge – “Jump Right In” and “Brainless.” #wednesdayplaylist

Joule - @superbadgirl For the last month or more, I’ve had Elton John’s “Rocket Man” in my head. This morning, Rasputina’s cover of “Barracuda”.

Moondust - @superbadgirl The girl from Iponema,movie themes that involve trumpets (I’m looking @soupy) LET IT BE, #wednesdayplaylist

bengoldman – @superbadgirl The “Looks like a pump, feels like a sneaker” song from that commercial. #wednesdayplaylist

thatcesareguy – @superbadgirl the theme to “Sanford & Son”. “Some Like It Hot.” “Eye of the Tiger.” “Blame it on the Rain”- worst one ever.

cbellers - @superbadgirl Shut Up Woman Get On My Horse still gets stuck in my head for hours. #wednesdayplaylist

k_del – @superbadgirl Thanks to @jamietoonart @CDCyr #wednesdayplaylist

trmink - @superbadgirl “…follows madness and death” Highway to Hell – AC / DC

ZSB3 – @superbadgirl My #wednesdayplaylist:

SgtHotpants – @superbadgirl I was just reminded of this. Now the song is my submission: http://bit.ly/d56zEk

violentecstasy – @superbadgirl Lady Gaga’s Poker Face. The Ramones’ I Wanna Be Sedated. #wednesdayplaylist

Grave_Danger – @superbadgirl “Islands in the Stream”.

ZSB3 – Also for #wednesdayplaylist: Four Leaf Clover by Abra Moore.

soupy – That one song that I can’t remember the name of. Or the lyrics. #wednesdayplaylist

_bunny_ – @superbadgirl Too late? Just remembered, because there it is again, my default earworm: Alley Oop #wednesdayplaylist

Hope I got everyone, I didn’t keep perfect track of this yesterday. If I left you out and you’d like me to post your submission, lemme know!

Lately

…I am pondering the amount of time it takes for a cool thing seen on the Internet to go from “Holy shit, that’s the most awesome thing ever!” to “Holy shit, that thing? I’ve had it forwarded to me 327 times and seen it on 17 different blogs. Fuck that thing and every dipshit who promotes it.”

That time seems to shorten continuously. Right now it’s about two days, maybe three. Certainly not as long as a week.

The thing that set off my irritation meter today was that guy who does the teeny-tiny pencil lead carvings. I first saw those a few weeks ago, maybe two, and I was blown away. Jeez they are teeny and tiny and intricate. Impressive.

And then I started to see them in more and more places. It seemed to be some kind of insane crossover that showed up on art and design blogs, living blogs, random cool shit blogs, tech blogs. Everyone seemed to think this fit into their blog genre, and wanted to share. But instead of being initially impressed and then glad that so many people were celebrating this artist, I began to feel… irritated. The work had not changed, but my perception of it shifted as it became less novel to me. I couldn’t even just gloss over the continued mentions, they started to almost enrage me. THAT GUY AGAIN? WTF MORONS!? Was in my head more than it should have been.

And it seems the time it takes for that to happen is shortening. I see a thing three times, maybe four, and the thing and all people associated with the thing earn my immediate scorn.

My brain craves novel amusements, thinks of them as its due. My brain does not want your same old tired shit that it already saw yesterday, that shit should no longer exist! My brain wants fresh fun, god damn it.

Other things that have lately enraged me with their ubiquity: the video of the cat fighting its own reflection in the floor. Posts about how Glenn Beck is hurting America (yeah I know, not news.) Everyone who retweets The Oatmeal. Recaps about the show Mad Men, on many many blogs that had nothing to do with TV shows. (Ditto posts about Lost.) I don’t watch that show, and thus who cares? I already read that blog, why ask me to read it again? Why are you clogging my interwebs with this nonsense?

It’s like the more things become customized to cater to my tastes, the less patience I have for things that are not specifically suited to my desires at that moment. And I do not know how to turn this irritation and lack of patience off.

I do not enjoy spending half the day in enraged contempt at things that enter my overloaded data-stream and are judged irrelevant. But what is the answer? Turn the data stream off? Have less access to less information? How does one learn to gracefully tolerate the same information flying at them nonstop all day? Because that’s the issue. I am already sorting mental wheat from chaff all damn day. It’s hard to process all the information coming in. When the information repeats, it’s like it’s doing it specifically on purpose to clog up my already overburdened neurons. Hence the irritation. And yet, this is not a phenomenon that will go away. If I see a cool thing I want to share it, and my friends will want to share it, and other blogs will want so share it, that’s the way memes work. And with various info streams all feeding in, I am likely to see intricate pencil carvings guy on Twitter (MUST READ!) and Google Reader (analyzed by twenty art and style blogs + Boing Boing) and on Facebook (have you guys seen this guy OMG) and who knows where else. So it’s up to me to manage my irritation at the audacity of a thing existing past the time when I deem it relevant or desired. But how to do that?

So that’s what I have been pondering lately. Tips welcome.