Sylvain Chauveau

Max Richter

Goldmund

Hauschka

Forestflies

Clogs

Ben Woods

Rob Costlow

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/feature/49132-column-through-the-cracks-3


And some unrelated others, before I forget.

Manual

...and nobody cared

Clint Mansell

Emilie Simon

A Silver Mt. Zion

I Am Robot and Proud

A study came out recently that claimed that you could reduce pains by looking at the offending body part through a binocular reversed, as to make the object appear further away.  Crazy as it seems, the idea is that your mind perceiving the body part to be distant and small will psychologically dull the pain.

I am emotionally tied.  I have an appetite for hugs and touch.  I find that my bed is too small and lonely to sleep in.

I'm stuck in the same feeling.  I look through photo albums of love I was just next to, and feel distant.  Even just a day seems so impossibly long, and responsibilities seem to drift away in a sea of thought and inspiration.

Paintings convert my lenses to a wider focus, and I see the beautiful surroundings clouded by perceptions of distance where my mind is allowed to wander in the dense forests of intrigue, of beautiful distractions and simple numbers that shine in fractals, notes and tones I want to tie into melodies, voices and hums I want to synthesize and write about in class projects (if only to keep my professors curious as to my ecstasy). 

Reconciling my desires and my daily responsibilities....

The immense warm feeling of being in love, of being inspired, with inescapable lenses pointed at my heart.

Note: I am a huge fan of Burger King.  I hope that you will only use this method if you have less than ten friends on facebook.  Otherwise, may this post bring more publicity and advertising to the glory of the King.

Burger King: Viral-marketing geniuses.

Recently they released a facebook application that takes advantage of all of the fair-weather facebook friends we all have.  Providing that you are willing to delete ten of these friends, Burger King will send you a coupon for a free Whopper.

But I like my Facebook friends.  Certainly, all of my Facebook friends are the result of weeks of social interactions.  We have formed close, personal bonds that will last a lifetime.  How could I bear to delete even one?

I decided there must be another way.

Saving Your Facebook Friends

A.K.A I am a source-code dwelling bastard.

Almost all of my solutions reside in the dark, decrepit area of your browser known as View Source.  The code behind most of what is delivered to your computer from the web can be found here; this is the basic format of what your internet browser interprets and delivers to your screen.

With Firefox, a plug-in called Firebug, and a little bit of searching, you can get your whopper the safe way.

You will need Firefox, and a facebook account with the Whopper Sacrifice application added.

Step 1: Download Firebug

Firebug is a neat little application for Firefox that is geared towards web design.  For our purposes, Firebug will let us trick Burger King into thinking that we have deleted ten friends when we haven't.

Download it!

Step 2: Deceive the King

Go to the Whopper Sacrifice application, open up Firebug (it should be a small bug icon in your status bar), and do a search for burn_count.  You'll want to edit the HTML of the embedded application and change the burn_count from 0 to10.


Click for larger version.

The burn_count variable (it's in there, trust me) is towards the bottom.  It will take a little eye strain to find it, but after changing the number, the application will allow you to claim your whopper.

Of course, you could easily re-friend your sacrifices, or work together to obtain whopper coupons.  Keep in mind that this method will allow you to create new accounts and collect more whopper coupons without adding friends.

Scott came back.  He's determined to take me out drinking.  I was in Minnesota during my birthday, and I missed the excitement of the holidays and the alcohol associated with it.

According to Scott, I'm not allowed to go out in my new sweaters.  He's convinced that I didn't buy them, and I suppose the unfamiliar clothing item seems too foreign.  Scott mentioned going in matching 90fm shirts, and I made the joke about being brothers.  This is a reference to when we got haircuts about a year ago, when we pretended to be brothers spontaneously.  One beautician asked us about our relation, commenting that she knew by the hair, even though we are convinced that she over heard us admitting our family connection up at the front counter.

We don't even have the same color hair anymore.  I fail to achieve Scott's albino characteristics.

It's been too long since I've dreamed consistently.  I don't remember my dreams, if they exist at all.  Too long.

Instead, hallucinating.  Faded memories that don't exist, and couldn't.  Cartoon-character animals and plants with smiley faces.  Single frames that are constantly being spatially distorted.

How do I make it stop?

I keep asking Rebecca about her dreams, and I must admit that I am a little jealous.  I feel as if my subconscious has given up.  No more imagination, no more inspiration.

Minnesota was quite sobering.  I've always wanted to explore the Mall of America, and the city in general, and I asked Rebecca if she wanted to during the winter break.  Honestly, I am semi-prospecting future places of employment.  Considering the job market for my interests, the Minneapolis area is quite promising.

Traffic there is polite.  I feel as if I am the fastest driver in the state.  No one dares pass me until we cross the border into Wisconsin.  We did run into a few difficulties, especially when we attempted navigation.  Even when we did construct a working path, occasional construction, surprise exits weather and congestion always added some driving stress.  Luckily, Minnesotans seem quite content letting the wild Wisconsin drivers wreak havoc on ther streets.  Unfortunate is the police blockade of the only logical entrance to the Minnesota Science Museum on New Year's Day due to a nearby hockey game, especially when the museum isn't up to expectations.

There was one accident, void of any evidence of a car-car collision, and completed magnificiently by the orange-red hue of a flame cloak.  The offending SUV was almost unrecognizable under it's encompassing shroud of fire.  Slowing down to take pictures seemed appropriate, even if we were already late for the IMAX showing of The Day the Earth Stood Still.

The Walker Art Center had more than a few intriguing galleries.  Although I expected the building itself to be bigger, I found each room itself to be a statement worthy of consideration.  A little too contemporary for my taste, but I found the ideas themselves to be stimulating.

The Mall was an adventure in itself.  Two days of chinese food, Häagen Dats, Lindt chocolate and books, books, books. I always expected the mall to be a little bigger, but it came close to meeting my outrageous demands of size.  I am inspired to find Alpaca rugs for my future home.  We would have tried Underwater Adventures, but our lack to find a satisfying discount and average reviews led us to spend our time elsewhere.

Food.

For my birthday dinner, Rebecca took me out to W.A. Frost, a classy restaurant nestled in St. Paul, the seemingly-unpopular sister city.  We discussed snowmen and manners.  The next day's mango chicken was equally tasty in the right company.  The asian salesman for the Thai restaurant was excellent at his marketing duty, much more respectful than the make-up salesman that I had wanted to punch earlier for being too pushy. 

The two zoos in the area were fun, but tiring.  Most of the animals were kept inside, but I suspect that a seasonal depression might have taken over.  Pacing back and forth seemed standard. 

Maybe I've been hit, too.  I'm feeling the need to express appreciation.  The idea, I think, that we mentioned was that I might have learned not-loving from my parents.  I don't want that to be true. 

I'm finding modern classical music to be most beautiful in lieu of hugs.  Finding secret messages on flickr are calming, as are epiphanies rooted in discussions of fate.

I'm looking at the Minnesota trip as a gain in finding art and exploring.  Bubble tea, minus the bubbles.  German shepherds.  There was a lot of downtown walking, book stores full of secrets to be uncovered.

Maybe my dreams have yet to catch up.

Rebecca was adamant that I spend Christmas with her and her dad.  A lonely holiday was not destined for me after all.

I was a little taken back when I discovered that Rebecca's dad had gotten me warm winter clothing items as a present.  I was unprepared.  Uncle George also lumped me into his intentions, associating me with an impressive blender that he had picked off of Rebecca's wish-list.

I'm still hoping that my family will somehow find time to gather.  I want to drag Rebecca along.  Rebecca's grandparents have expressed interest in meeting me, and (edit) Aunt Berna has also asked to meet Rebecca's "special friend".

Also on my mind: classes, wwsp, Minneapolis.
I desperately need to fix my class schedule to account for my radio work, and random WDMD class adjustments.  I am optimistic.

10:00p.m.

Move Your Feet by Junior Senior
Courtship Dating by Crystal Castles
Nrrrd Grrrl by MC Chris
Double Shadow (Kode 9 remix) by Junior Boys
Keyhole by Walter Meego
Music Matters by Faithless
You Are My Love by Jamiroquai
Bendable Poseable by Hot Chip
You Make Me Feel So Good by Junkie XL
Sarah Dreams of Summer by Working For a Nuclear Free City
The Salmon Dance by The Chemical Brothers
Things You Can Do by TV on the Radio
Danger! High Voltage by Electric Six

11:00p.m.

Tthhee Ppaarrttyy by Justice
Woman (Mstrkrft Remix) by Wolfmother
Empty Space by Air Traffic
Venus by Air
This by Tryad
ungrateful men by Grace Valhalla
We Are Mice by Azure Ray
Morgen by Ewa Firsowicz
Invisible Ones Guard The Gate by Orenda Fink
The story of little fake diamonds by The Anchorites
Ancient Peoples by Kinit Her
30:55 by Ólafur Arnalds
Gabriel by Lamb

12:00a.m.

Rock by Half Dub Theory
Floating by Troubadour
...as if rabbits were running along the tin-pipe towards the eternity... by Violence Cotton Drone
face of jesus in my soup by Avi Paul Weinstein
Mortal Wombat by Acrnym
Intro 61 by wotw
End it? by Holdcut
Roberta C by Casiotone For The Painfully Alone
These Days by Lost Balance
The Mysterious Ticking Noise by Potter Puppet Pals
Amber Button by ISAN
Five to Four, Ten to Eleven by ISAN
No Exit by Ad-ver-sary
The Mosaicist by Cougar
Kyoteizinc by Omodaka
Your Beautiful Life by Repriseless

1:00a.m.

All The Way to China (feat. Erlend Øye) by James Figurine
Ip 42.54.36.98 by Iso Brown
Winter Vacation by Atlas Sound
Gropitele Marianel by Nord
Plastic Minute by Rosewater
Arschblueten by Galantkrach
Aquantum Leap by Morgen Mittag
Bright Tomorrow by Fuck Buttons
The Sun's Gone Dim and the Sky's Gone Black by Jóhann Jóhannsson
1930 by Merzbow

10:00p.m.

You Make Me Feel Like Charity by The Knife
Only This Moment by Röyksopp
D.A.N.C.E (MSTRKRFT Remix) by Justice
Roche by Sébastian Tellier
Horsey Horse by Alaska In Winter
Little Girl Blue (The Postal Service Remix) by Nina Simone
Break The Same by MuteMath
Death Watch by Alias
Jiseiki-Hirake Kokoto by Yellow Magic Orchestra
Goodnight And Go by Imogen Heap
Be My Friend by Darkel
Corner of Your Heart by Ingrid Michaelson

11:00p.m.

Far Away by Cut Copy
Na Na Na Naa (Polysics Remix) by Kaiser Chiefs
Anthems For A Seventeen-Year-Old Girl by Broken Social Scene
Roar by Hercules and Love Affair
Cherry Blossom Girl by Air
Beaten Thursday by Prefuse 73
Mon Soleil by Alexis
Flying Over Bus Stops by Athlete
We're Free! by Fluydo
Last Train to Wherever by Télépopmusik
Group Four by Massive Attack
There's Nothing Impossible by Deus

12:00a.m.

Cherry Blossom Color Season by Yu Miyake, Katamari Company Jr.
Breathe by Lightning Dust
Pretty Little Eyes by The Presets
Slowly by M83
Tattoo of Her Name by VAST
First Love by Boy In Static
What's Up, People? by Maximum the Hormone
Come To Daddy by Aphex Twin
Coin-Operated Boy by The Dresden Dolls
Wham City by Dan Deacon

1:00a.m.

Medusa (edit) by Ulrich Schnauss
Will rise by BLACK ERA
Dawn Chorus by Boards of Canada
Mesmerize by Tryad
Why She Swallows Bullets And Stones by Esmerine
Twenty Two Fourteen by The Album Leaf
Himininn Er Að Hyrnja, En Stjörnurnar Fara Þér Vel by Ólafur Arnalds
Skiss Av Träd by Library Tapes
If You Only Knew The Rain by Balmorhea
Something Has Changed by Peter Broderick
Hermana by Bosques de mi Mente
Clover by Xiu Xiu
Seratonin by Rachel's

I've received my working gift from Rebecca.  We've been practicing around town.  Due to the nature, I won't give too many details, but I will say that it is the kind of thing that would probably bring nostalgic memories to certain high school friends.

For the second time now, I have been involved in a drive-by "faggot"-labeling in Stevens Point.  I was walking with Rebecca from downtown when the incident occurred.  The offending vehicle, this time a car, drove by, and the driver told us to "watch our backs, faggots."

I assume that this was an independant driver, one unrelated to the first.  I don't recall making friends of the homophobic variety (I am not gay, regardless), so I doubt that this person was aiming these words at me specifically.

Curious.

Side note: WWSP's Radiothon (an on-air auction) went well, but we didn't earn as much money as we had set in our goal.  Still, numbers were satisfactory.  Rebecca did end up unwillingly winning some items from El Dorado's, a local adult party store.  It was entertaining explaining what had happened to my 90fm work friends.

Prerequisitive reading: http://capitocapito.livejournal.com/14703.html

What's your name?

“David Capitol” [We decided it would be funny if I had chosen an "alias" to conceal my identity]

High School Class Size

50 people

What sparked my interest in computer hacking? An event? Or a person?

I've always believed that humans are built with a set of survival instincts. These instincts prompt people to understand the rules and limits of the world. I believe it is the group of people that try to find those limits (and possibly stretch and break them) that are creative innovators. I've always admired and found further inspiration through characters such as Kevin Mitnick and John Draper

How long have you been interested in your hobby?

I've always been interested in the philosophy and definition of hacking. “Hacking” isn't necessarily a concept that should be constrained to computers; anyone who is willing to explore and test limits can potentially be a “hacker”. Certainly, a certain stigma has erupted regarding hackers as criminals, no doubt resulting from a common disregard of authoritative measures. Anything impeding on our progress is bad in our minds. I have no doubt that I have been breeding these qualities and philosophies into my core being. Ever since my childhood, I have been breaking into or escaping from different places, gaining different interests such as lockpicking and phone “phreaking”. Transferring an interest such as lock picking into computer hacking is really just a small shift in medium.

Where did you first learn about computer code? Who taught you computer code?

I consider my knowledge to be a result of a mix between self-teaching and class lessons. I have learned a certain amount of skill navigating through computer code through class, but I've always used tutorials online as supplemental materials. My will and ability to do what I do with my computer knowledge is more difficult to attribute to someone.

Do you remember your first quote/unquote “hack”?

Not quite, but I do remember some early tricky maneuvers from high school. One experience with “hacking” involved bypassing web-content filters at my high school. Our school employed a “proxy” system that would display an “access denied” page whenever somebody attempted to browse to a page that involved non-”school safe” content. Censorship is naturally a topic that inspires activism from people such as myself. I treated the blocker as a challenge. Eventually, I discovered that I could access blocked content by browsing through a server in China (tricks such as driving traffic through Google's cache or an online translator were not effective.) My trick involved browsing through secure transfer protocols, and later I discovered that I could use the same trick to access the internet when our district forgot to pay that bill. Exploring had opened a door unavailable to even the faculty,.

What were some of your more high profile hacks?

 

Recall that my version of hacking involves breaking limits. One of my more public actions that demonstrates this idea still, to this day, resides on facebook. One of the limits that facebook has placed was a character limit to group names. I discovered, through code, a way to bypass this limit and create group names that had no limit in length. Unprepared, facebook would display this name in a humorous manner, as the title of the group would extend past the edges of the facebook page. I've used this technique for other humorous results, such as setting my school status and year to unavailable options, like “Summer student of '9”, and setting my facebook status to display the entire history of Canada, as told by wikipedia. It made my news feed absurdly lengthy.

 

A more recent event involved homecoming voting on campus. Two years ago, I was able to add fraudulent votes to the campus voting system, causing my hall's candidates to win by over 1700 votes. The next year,after voting was closed, I was informed that the system had been secured. To test this claim, I actually went back into the closed system, and was able to add votes to chosen candidates even after the election was done. I was also able to pull the results off of the voting server, giving me access to actual vote tabulations. They were never released elsewhere.

Do you think this skill will help you out in the future, or do you anticipate trouble?

Both. Of course, with a little bit of a hacker's creativity, I have no doubt that I can avoid trouble.

I attached this image and sent it as an example:

Evan reads newspaper.

Dirk: "Nyeh! Look at me, I'm Evan Clucas pretending I can read!"

Rebecca, and my shirt trick

Every once-in-a-while, when Rebecca sleeps over at my house, I have the tendency to take off my clothes in my sleep.  (I'll have to start wearing a belt to bed.)

Well, this morning, I took off my button-up before showering, and I noticed that my undershirt was nearly taken off; the t-shirt was wrapped around one arm with the body of the shirt loose in the open space between my button-up and my naked chest.

Ponder that.  Somehow I had managed to take the shirt off of my body and one arm, without disturbing the long sleeve covering it.  The shirt, somehow, made it over my head and into my left sleeve.

I doubt that I took off my outer shirt and put it back on.  If it's like my pants, from an earlier incident, I probably wouldn't have restored my shirt in my sleep.  I don't think my subconscious desires work that way.

But how did it happen?  My clothes defy logic.

They must go.


Assignments and to-do

WDMD 311, SDS

345, Counterpoint site, whoo!

History, work on essay

90FM website due date, January 23rd

Also:
DaishoCon
A music facebook note?

Not my title.  Copyright Uncle George.

Today, Uncle George (Rebecca's pretend uncle, actually a friend of her dad) invited me along to Rebecca Appreciation Day.

Delicious.  Thanksgiving with Rebecca's family (her dad and "uncle" George), and dinner with Rebecca at Bernard's the next day.  Now, with Rebecca Appreciation Day at the Charcoal Grill, I can never eat again.

Rebecca's dad scoffed when I put in money for the bill.  He doesn't like it when other people pay.  I can still picture the look on her dad's face when I went to get change for the tip, asking Rebecca what I'm doing.

...

I wonder what Rebecca's dad thinks of me. 

Somehow, Rebecca and I decided not to leave each other's sight for the entirety of this week.

The closeness and honesty of living life side by side has ripped me apart on the inside. No doubt her, too. I've never confronted so many of my personal problems before, and we've created enough friction to burn down our emotional walls.

I cried when I thought I lost her.  And then again when I realized that I hadn't. 

Now we can build better, stronger, higher walls made of happier materials, baked with our mutual tears and cooled by the soft glow of realization. And we've only made matching keys for ourselves.

We are bundles of neuroses.

Knotted, strained, stressed, worried.

completely Compatible.

I found Rebecca's keylogger. Clever Girl. No car until Sunday. 49 to 62. Dogma, tremors, shoot 'em up. Five dollar tip. Metal tag, Jake's collar. Hand-holding, my wonderful collar. [16:37:50] Day 2. says:  i'm sorry
[16:46:45] Day 2. says:
im sorry
[16:53:51] Day 2. says:
im sorry
[16:57:27] Day 2. says:
i'm sorry
[16:57:39] Day 2. says:
i'm sorry...
[17:38:31] Day 2. says:
i'm sorry
Don't be. collar that holds me together when I'm falling apart, your arms.
We'll break each other.  That's how it should be
,Love.  We need, each other.

We're so hopelessly happy, and devious.

Scott came back home one day, complaining that the Oz was yelling at him about the 90FM website.  I had no difficulty having a rational conversation with the Oz, and I completed most of the Radiothon site, with Rebecca's help (she resized and cropped most of the photos).

I felt terrible that Scott was being confronted about the site, when it was my responsibility.  However, the Oz explained that the issue arose because there is no really quick-and-easy way to contact me. 

I was contacted by Teresa on Monday during my DJ shift about having a package list on the site, so I uploaded Excel spreadsheets. I think everyone assumed that I was going to stop there, and not create a web page for the packages.  I was going to, and I explained that to Oz, with pleasing results.

I am generally happy with the results, but I think the designs I have in mind for the new 90FM site are too distracting to do current work.

I have no idea what to write at the moment. David's gone off to "preheat the oven for the duck." If you know what he means.

I certainly don't.

I wonder if he tossed the potato in there as well.

What a kink.

(Posted by Rebecca)

Rebecca and I were eating at Bernards, and she attempted to break one of my breadsticks with hers, violently.

Me: They call me Iron Rod.  That's my kung-fu name.
Rebecca: More like your porn name.
Me: Porn kung-fu!

Greetings,

Recently I applied to help out with canvassing on election day.

Unfortunately, I was rejected after a background check was performed.  While I am not offended at this situation, I am slightly surprised and confused. I feel that it is rational for me to wonder why this happened, as I have never encountered any problems with employment like this before.  As far as I am aware, there is nothing in my history that should prevent my employment with Advancing Wisconsin.  I am concerned that there might be a mistake with my background information, and I would like to solve this issue before it becomes a problem in the future.

Please explain to me the reason behind my rejection for the election-day canvassing.  I feel that it is my right to know the reason behind my rejection, but if this is absolutely not possible, I request that you detail the background checking procedure, including the name of the agency that performs the procedure.

Thank you,
David Capito II
715.410.3577

I was scheduled to work today canvassing for Advancing Wisconsin, a paid job.