jmoiron.net

This is a message to ticketmaster, who screwed me out of white stripes tickets this past thursday. Fuck you

Lots of cool shit happened this week, but as always most of this cool shit can be described, by nature of being "cool", as simply "chillin". I don't know why chillin is so cool; besides the whole nomenclature thing. It's like sunny delight that way; it just is, and who am I to complain?

I spoke to Maydrea for quite a bit on saturday, then kicked Jou's Mario 64 record's ass by getting all 120 stars and hoppin up to Yoshi for some tripple jump lovin. I bought junk food, snuck a preview of a movie with a very large green man through the nefarious actions of someone, discussed the pleasure of using words like "nefarious", "snafu", and "dastardly", talked to my father, took a walk, went to the gym. Things were entirely chill.

But Ticketmaster just had to fuck me like that. I was pissed. You'd think that with akamai under the hood, their stupid ass pictures wouldn't have timed out. You know, the picture with words like "seaweed" or "haystack" that you need to read in order to keep out the hordes of ticket ordering bots who were apparently perfectly fucking Ticketmaster and Akamai over without actually getting tickets.

The bad part of this past week, the part that was not "chill", was the part where I got abso-fucking-lutely nothing done; profanity added for significance. So today I decided to remedy this, and was blown away by how easy it was to continue to do nothing. I can't even tell you what I've done today, because I don't remember. It had something to do with free cell at least, that much I actually can remember.

The strange dreams continue! This time, Jerumu, upon passing by some sort of contest, decided to enter it, and got a recording studio gig. Of course, since he's quiet, he doesn't tell any of us. Then, a video of his ends up as #12 on an MTV Countdown. Furious with the fact that he has no musical talent (and not making the connection; that is why he's on MTV), Jou and I head down and enter the contest ourselves. After winning in predictable, suave fashion, I frantically try to come up with a melody that would make MTV; but alas, I wake up, and wonder if Jerumu really had a video on MTV.

According to Firu, I have quite an interesting theory: that online piracy draws many parallels to Project Mayhem from Fight Club. Many of the biggest pirates run computer systems professionaly; remember Chris Tresco of Drink or Die fame? He was a sysadmin for MIT. These people might not cook your meals, take out your trash, or clean your homes; but they sure as hell connect your phone calls, and for companies like the RIAA and MPAA, they guard you while you sleep. Warez groups and Movie Rippers are well organized, broken into seperate cells all capable of operation without central leadership. They strike right at the heart of consumerism and commercialism: hollywood. And in today's world, downloading an mp3 is something that your mother, father, even grandparents are probably doing. The real scene, however, is more angry, raw, organized, and idealistic than mom or dad; often, especially in the case of the Warez scene, knowingly and deliberately "attacking" companies they don't like or software with licenses they do not agree with.

It brings up an interesting question: is it wrong? Is any of it wrong? Morally and ethically, on the surface it would appear wrong to steal software, clothes, food, whatever it is you're stealing. However, when put into the context of an american's life, is it wrong? "Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes we don't want, buying shit we don't need." By the time one of us is whatever years old, we've seen a bajillion advertisements; or something like that. I'd like to invite anyone reading this to try to travel 1 mile without seeing an advertisement or product placement. You probably can't; at least, not starting from your house. Billboards litter the country; if you're listening to your radio, then you definitely see your fair share of advertisements. If you happen to use public transportation, you are barraged with ads; if you happen to see any public transportation, odds are you've just witnessed an add, too. Is it unfair to us that we cannot escape consumerism and advertisement, industries that have grown so widespread that its hardly possible to live without comming into constant contact with them? If its unfair, is it logical for people to lash out at it; is it wrong? Its a tough question, and the american's condition complicates an otherwise easy question.

To be fair, most Warez groups I have ever been in contact with have never spouted any anti-consumerism rants, they just want free shit. In this way online piracy differs from Project Mayhem in that Project Mayhem is much more in pursuit of an ideal, where piracy is actually in pursuit of more material posessions. However, the victims (big corporations), consequences, and rationalisations seem rather similar. And rather more pertinent, the people are the same. You can fight all you want; but sooner or later you'll realize, more and more these people become you; and you become them. You think RIAA employees don't have mp3's? They are the sys admins, codec hackers, encryption experts, website designers, technology directors, moms and dads of the world, attacking you in unison. Do not fuck with them.