Juana is very silly

I have the ultimate power here...

A status update on your favorite blogger!

(Just to make sure, I just picked these guys because they look excited, not because they look gay)

Mood: Accomplished, excited, but very tired

Latest accomplishment(s):
Went to the gym for 2 days in a row, recorded my 2nd song and posted it on Myspace - today is all about 2's.

When can we expect the next song?
Did you see how long it took to record this one? Actually it might be done in the next 2 weeks if I'm lucky so stay tuned. And I'll release 2 songs, and they'll be 2 minutes long. Okay enough.

Listening to:
Lots of Muse, Story of the Year (the newer, angrier stuff), My Chemical Romance (the older, angrier stuff), and other more obscure things on my Zune like Porcupine Tree and old old Incubus (when they played Jazz Funk Rock..... yeah....).

What's a Zune?
It's like an iPod but Microsoft makes it, and it's much better. It has radio. You can share songs wirelessly and listen to things in sync with other people who own Zunes! How cool is that?

You listen to radio?
No, but you likely do.

Playing:
Mega Man X, Street Fighter 2 Turbo, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, Sunset Riders, F-Zero, (notice a trend?), Battlefield Bad Company 2, lots of drums, not so much guitar, only as much bass as I have to (sorry bassists out there, aka Justin).

Plans for the weekend:
Do I ever plan anything? Actually I might go to Long Island, Boston, or Snowboarding in New Jersey - either that or I'll stay in and play Battlefield Bad Company 2 which is awesome - so lol no plans.

Not going to the gym?
Ugh, fine.

Current thoughts:
I hate the gym. It hurts when I stretch now.

Other current thoughts:
Avatar got shafted for best score, but Up had pretty good music too so it's all good - it made $2.6 billion so let someone else win some awards...

Your brain is multithreaded?
Yes I can actually think multiple things at once. Amazing. I/You am/are the/teh greatest/suxors. How's that for parallel computing?

Newest cool thing I've learned:
If you write the words "is attached" or "are attached" in a Gmail email and send the email without attaching anything, Google will ask you if you meant to attach something. A pretty awesome feature, except yesterday I said "are attached at the hip" and triggered the question box. No biggie though, I can see the usefulness. This is why Google is awesome. Putting lots of smart people in a room and allowing them do come up with clever things is a good idea!

Mo out.

I present to you "The Concerto of Impending Doom"

Since my songs have no lyrics, I just give them ridiculous titles. As a follow up to my first song, "The Non-Stop Rock Symphony of Ultimate Destruction" I've named my second song "The Concerto of Impending Doom." I think until I find a singer and have lyrics, the songs will continue to be named "The [form of classical music] of [adjective] [something bad]." I think it's a solid formula and I'm sticking to it.

That said, check out my new song in all it's its glory (wasn't paying attention the first time around):

"The Concerto of Impending Doom"

Mo Out.

PS doesn't "half time feel" make things sound so epic?

Daniel H. Pink is a big poop face

I was going to skip this post because it involves the reader watching a third-party video, but I've realized that some of the points I'm about to make are valid regardless of whether you watch the video or not, and, more importantly, this guy makes me so angry that I just want to bash him anyway. So without further adieu, here we go:

...So, before you read this, check out this idiot (sorry, some adieu spilled over into this paragraph). Daniel H. Pink presents the case that big bonuses don't mean big results. His presentation/speech actually doesn't center on the finance industry, but it's pretty clear that he's targeting us (I'm going to sand in solidarity with my fellow targeted financiers). He uses a series of "proven scientific experiments" to show that incentive compensation doesn't work. And he makes a few fine points. When people are blinded by the incentives they often restrict their vision and are less able to solve the problem. Fine. Here's what I have to say:

1) I’m not quite sure Mr. Pink understands how people are paid in the finance industry. Yes, some people are paid on commission, but the biggest reason for the large bonuses is as an incentive to stay. Here’s how it works: a very skilled trader (call him Joe) generates lots of revenue for Bank A and also satisfies all the bank’s clients. Trader Joe is a valuable asset. Investment Bank B offers to pay him a higher salary than he is earning in order to come work for them, because it knows he is talented. Therefore, Bank A pays him lots of money, in order to retain him. He is getting paid because his proven ability to generate revenue is worth something to the firm. So to use the candlestick analogy, once Trader Joe has figured out the puzzle and tacked the container to the wall faster than everyone else, Bank A recognizes his genius and pays him to stay and tack other things to the wall.

I'm going to start the bashing now.

2) Doesn't he just look like a bitch?

3) Like any professor would tell you, do not ever use Wikipedia as a source… for anything, including shitty analogies. It will always come back to haunt you. While it’s true that Wikipedia has had much higher viewership and put Encarta out of business, Wikipedia also happens to be FREE. Are you serious Daniel Pink?? Do you really think that the reason for a free online encyclopedia’s success over an expensive DVD-format encyclopedia is the method by which its employees are incentivized? Also I think if you’re going to compare the two, you should really compare the encyclopedia itself as opposed to the public’s opinion of the encyclopedia. I for one believe that any encyclopedia in which Stephen Colbert can change Earth’s elephant population is clearly inferior to Encarta. Honestly did Daniel Pink ever do a high school history assignment in his life? Wikipedia clearly doesn't have all those awesome pictures.

4) If you’re going to give a speech and talk about people using emotions rather than common sense in making decisions, please try to refrain from being EXTREMELY EMOTIONAL while doing so. Not only does it take away from your point, but it makes you look like one of those whiny indie bands that bash all the popular indie bands for selling out.

5) What the fuck is this man bitching about? If you were trying to pitch me on using other forms of incentivizing for situations in where I force people to do dumb shit and time them, then yes, you’ve done a good job. But any sort of analogy on how this is relevant to the financial industry is completely lost. What the hell else are we supposed to compensate bankers with… a warm sense of self-accomplishment? Freedom to trade whatever they want? To what end?? Our dear Mr. Pink seems to have overlooked that the only reason anyone would be a trader/investment banker/underwriter/other-more-obscure-function-of-an-investment-bank-that-gets-hella-paid is because IT PAYS VERY WELL! Do you think it brings joy to anyone’s heart to see electronic documents that represent pieces of paper which represent ownership in corporations that don’t exist exchange hands between people acting on behalf of corporations that don’t exist? NO! We do it for the money, you jackass.

[catching breath]

More.... bash..ing.... it's not surprising he [cough] didn't do well in law school....

[catching breath]

[changing title of the post from "big results mean big bonuses, and not the other way around" to something really immature]

Mo out.

Like the dumbest motherfucker that ever lived!

Figured I'd keep you entertained today with a pair of short ones. Speaking of a pair of short ones, there's not much more you need to read other than this excerpt from Wikipedia:

"On July 16, 1858, in order to avoid the temptation of prostitutes, Corbett castrated himself with a pair of scissors.[3] Afterward, he ate a meal and went to a prayer meeting, before going for medical treatment.[3]"

In case you don't believe me here's the full article.

Mo out.

Topeka, Kansas, becomes first city to sell its soul to Google - be scared!

Topeka, Kansas, for the month of March, will be known as "Google, Kansas," thereby making it the first city in this country to sell itself to the Google World Domination Machine (GWDM... think of it a little like Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine).

Although I do love Google (and Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine) I think it's a bit scary how they're slowly starting to invade the world. First they were dominating the internet, but now they're reaching out into the real world. First with phones, then fiber optics lines, and now they're starting to take over our cities.

I'd like to think that someday in the not too distant future there will be some trace of technology left that isn't running any Google software. Just as a security measure, you know. I don't want them pulling some Order 66 type shit on us and screwing us all over.

(that was a pretty obscure joke so I'll include a picture clue)

Also I'd like to point out that this is the second time Topeka changes its name. Back in 1998 the city changed its name to "Topikachu" to coincide with the release of Pokemon, making it a repeat offender. I guess Topeka is just one of those swinger towns. Personally I would have killed to see "Poughkeepsyduck."

Full article here.

Mo out.

Mo "enters the studio" with new material

Okay really this just means that I was home over the weekend and I started working on a new track. But if I'm ever going to make it as an artist, I need to learn to make a big deal out of nothing on a regular basis, because that's what the pros do. So here goes - started tracking drums on Saturday, which went pretty well up to the bridge part (because apparently I can't hold a fucking beat after the 2:40 mark). Then I got a little bored of drumming because I'm still not that good at it and it's more like work at this point, so I switched over to recording guitar half-way through the song (my new white Ravelle will be making its debut on this recording). Anyway after a little bit of playing guitar I decided everything sounded half-assed and decided to start over this week. Aside from the sound quality and on-timeness of everything, the song sounds pretty good though. It's the first time I've heard everything put together because I just think up the songs in my head and don't have anyone to jam with or anything.

So to end with a very generic statement that we've all heard from all our favorite bands: "I think this newest song is the best that I've ever worked on... I mean, it combines all the different elements that I've experimented with over my career and I'm truly proud of what I've done with it..."

Have a happy Monday. Mo out.