So Much Content, So Little Content

By Shamus Posted Sunday Oct 12, 2014

Filed under: Notices 30 comments

I have a ton of content in the queue, but it’s all sort of stuck at 80% complete. I have some programming posts in response to Jon Blow’s language proposal. I’ve got this massive 8-part series that I’m simultaneously ashamed and proud of. I’ve got the end of my “Something in the Water” series. I keep getting yanked from one project to the next without finishing things up, which isn’t usually one of my vices.

The move is still keeping me busy and distracted, but at some point I’ll get back into my groove and the content will flow again. Right now I’m going slightly crazy. I have this thing where I get really antsy if the front page of the site has content that’s more than two weeks old. I realize this probably only matters to me. Most of you use RSS and the rest just hit the back button when there’s nothing new. But the desire to push Old Stuff off the front page is one of the drives that keeps me going.

In the meantime, here is some more of my alleged music:

The title doesn’t mean anything. I’ve just always found the phrase “shotgun wedding” inherently funny, like “chainsaw birthday party” or “gatling gun bat mitzvah”.

I just realized recently that I’m getting pretty close to have an “album” of music content. That’s really strange.

One final note is that if you’re looking for good electronic music, check out Corporate Lifestyle Simulator. It’s cheap, it’s modestly fun, and it’s the best soundtrack since Hotline Miami.

 


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30 thoughts on “So Much Content, So Little Content

  1. Zak McKracken says:

    I had to think of this while listening (especially the last minute or so).
    You’re not quite Alphaville (sorry) but it reminded me … seems to me you’re getting somewhere with that music stuff.

    1. purf says:

      you made me look up Alphaville, the makers of “Forever Young” a track that to me screams crawling-into-parents’-bed-for-some-more-minutes-before-having-to-go-to-elementary-school-class, and that’s meant literally. So, thanks for that. Fwiw, I’ll just leave this here, because I’ve just found out.

      1. Zak McKracken says:

        Hmm… now you made me feel really old. Auto-tuned hiphop cover?
        That version makes me want to scream about how nobody these days knows good music anymore. Good to know that’s not quite true but this feels just like the Nineties to me.

  2. Zak McKracken says:

    Also, if I understand this correctly, “shotgun wedding” refers to the bride’s father forcing the guy who got is daughter pregnant to marry her. At gunpoint, figuratively or literally (you guys have strange customs…).

    So… what kind of situation would lead to someone enforcing a disco night at gunpoint, I wonder…?

    1. ET says:

      Boss who already rented the discotheque for the company Xmas party, and you’re all going to dance whether you want to or not! :P

      Also, I don’t think it’s a custom, so much as an old phrase. Like, old enough, that only men were the “bread earners” of the household. Like, Old West, maybe? Could also still be relevant in the trashier parts of the country… :P

      1. Zak McKracken says:

        I wasn’t assuming that this is something that could happen in the hipster quarters of San Francisco these day.
        But it still seems to have been a thing some time ago.
        I think in old Europe, very unsubtle social pressure would have done the trick, back in the day. Gives you plausible deniability. Or just blame the unfortunate mother and be done with it.

        … Look, I said “strange customs”, I didn’t say they were worse than some of the alternatives…

        1. Mike S. says:

          For example, what Heloise’s father did when he found out about her and Abelard.

        2. Mike S. says:

          Early modern Britain evidently had the related concept of the “knobstick wedding”, enforced by local church authorities. Albeit sometimes threatening similarly lethal alternatives:

          “In one case, recorded in the 6 October 1829 edition of The Times, a man was coerced into marrying the woman he was accused of making pregnant. The authorities, referred to as the “parish overseers”, threatened to hang him if he did not go through with the arrangement. Feeling that he had no option he agreed to the marriage and the pair were wed.”

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knobstick_wedding

    2. Daimbert says:

      So… what kind of situation would lead to someone enforcing a disco night at gunpoint, I wonder…?

      I’m pretty sure Deadpool either has done that in one of his storylines, or will at some point in the future.

    3. Vect says:

      “Disco Stu is brining the 70’s back. With vengeance!”

  3. purf says:

    You have the end of the Something in the Water? Because some of us might be pressing F5 when there’s nothing new.

    Also, I extremely welcome the recent influx of 80ies synth music to my ears which has somehow originated from here.

  4. Cybron says:

    I still look at the front page. Guess I’m just old fashioned that way, but I never cared for RSS feeds. I always feel like they remove you too far from the actual site.

    1. Zak McKracken says:

      I do both :)
      Check via web whenever I’m in the mood, but my main computer also has the RSS feed, just in case I forget to check.

  5. Dragmire says:

    Well I, and I’m sure many others, really appreciate your drive to keep the front page updated with new content. I might be just a thing to you but it’s a good thing for us.

    1. Dragmire says:

      Heh, missed that typo during the edit window. Makes for quite the different post than intended.

  6. AR+ says:

    In retrospect, I can see how linking to a site w/ “keygen” in the URL could get marked as spam. Let’s try this again.

    If you want free electronic music you can also engage in some piracy, of course! Not actually pirating games or music, but by listening to the wide collection of high-quality electronic music that traditionally accompanies key generators. A collection of them is available to listen to at keygenjukebox (dot) com

    “Deus Ex Installer” by Myth is one of my favorites.

  7. HiEv says:

    For a moment I thought this post was going to be you saying that you weren’t content with the content of your content. ;-)

    1. General Karthos says:

      How many writers are content with the content of their content? If we had to be content with the content of our content, there wouldn’t be any content of our content, because we’re never content. So maybe we just wouldn’t have any content. (Read that paragraph out loud and see if “content” sounds like a word. Especially if you’re from a region where “content”, and “content” sound the same.)

      It’s why I don’t have a blog. I’m never happy with what I get written down, so I’d never post.

      1. purf says:

        I just posted a new “article” to my “blog” which is just two screenshots of StreetView and what is basically a short explanation of why I’ve posted those. WordPress tells me that I’ve made 8 revisions. So, yes :)

  8. kikito says:

    I got Corporate Lifestyle Simulator after you recommended it on twitter and I can confirm it is a very realistic simulator. It brought back some memories. I have been using its soundtrack for programming.

    Looking forward to that programming post, btw!

  9. General Karthos says:

    I don’t use RSS. I dunno why. I’m one of those guys who checks the same web sites nine or ten times a day, looking for whatever’s new. The only places where I use post notification are in the online games that I’m playing in, and if I have a REALLY urgent question on a forum I visit only occasionally that’s not bookmarked. (The EA Forums, for example. *Vomits* Absolutely essential for troubleshooting their crapulent products, but nowhere I would ever go voluntarily.)

    Maybe I get excited thinking that something new will be up, and that little thrill lasts until I see that there isn’t. Or I get a big thrill out of seeing that there IS something new up, and the notification e-mail would ruin the surprise.

    Or it might have something to do with the fact that if I signed up for notifications from every site I visit, every time I checked my e-mail in the mornings I’d have to scroll at least an additional page on my gmail account. That’s probably the sensible reason that I just now came up with, but it’s quite possible that was the original reason.

    1. NotDog says:

      I tried using Twenty Sided’s RSS and had to sift through a bunch of spam bots commenting on posts from years ago. I’m not sure if I should report these or not.

    2. Daimbert says:

      I tried using a thread notification for board games that I was playing by forum. I quit doing that when I noticed that what was happening was my reloading the thread of the game, noticing that there was a new entry, noticing that I had a new mail … telling me about the update that I had just seen. Notifications don’t work if the only time you’re checking for the notification is essentially when you’re checking for new content anyway [grin].

  10. ehlijen says:

    Brass knuckle prom? Meat cleaver Christmas? Artillery barrage Easter? Tactical nuclear strike school reunion? Blitzkrieg BBQ party?

    Also, I really like that track. Definite head banging urge experienced.

    General vocab question, is a piece of music without lyrics still a song?

    1. Mersadeon says:

      God, those are ALL great names for bands, too!

    2. Felblood says:

      It didn’t used to be, but it is now.

      1. ehlijen says:

        Righto, thanks :)

  11. Cuthalion says:

    On the plus side, if content slows down, I’ll have more time to do things other than reading the internet!

    On the minus side, this is the very last site I would remove from my RSS harvester if I needed to carve out more time in my day. Because it’s my favorite blog. :’)

    On no side at all, except maybe yours, I liked that track a lot.

  12. mark says:

    what is this soundcloud thing? this is the second post i have seen with it in and i have no idea how to get it to work.

    Missing out on shamus’ music, sad times :D

  13. MichaelG says:

    From Marginal Revolution:

    There is a new product to help you with getting things done, writeordie.com:

    Write or Die is an application for Windows, Mac and Linux which aims to eliminate writer's block by providing consequences for procrastination and, new to this version, rewards for accomplishment. Historically Write or Die has specialized in being the stick in the carrot/stick motivation continuum, but it's time to experiment with encouragement.

    One of the biggest improvements is the inclusion of visual stimulus. Instead of just writing to avoid annoying sounds and alarm warning colors you can now customize your stimulus. If you like to see a cute puppy after you've reached a certain number of words, you can. If you'd like to write in fear of a jiggling spider, you can do that too.

    Under some modes, if you spend too much time without typing, it starts erasing the words you already have created.

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