Inauspicious beginning

[eclectic_boy]

I guess there's no reason to craft a momentous eventful First Entry To LiveJournal; why be pretentious? Major events will occur naturally and show up here at the appropriate time. Or not, it's still unclear how much I'll use LJ. One of the musings on that issue is what the relation between LJ and SWAPA should be. I don't want to hurt the paper-based friendlink that I've been involved with for over a decade by channelling energy away from it into a competing medium... but done right these need not be competitors.
Expect this to be a recurring theme in my entries. You've been warned :^)


My arms still ache a little from helping wrap foam swords with duct tape last night. I hope they really do last for many years, to justify how much effort each one takes!


The first SWAPA mix-CD arrived, but thanks to the Gods of synchronicity I'm racing to listen to, and comment on, the packet of SWAPA tapes that arrived a few weeks ago. Confirming that the synchronists are still running things, one song showed up on both: Joni Mitchell's A Case of You. Not that I mind; it's a lyrical, somewhat dreamy piece by someone whose music I really should get to know better. DVS, who runs both introduce-others-to-samples-of-your-favorite-music projects, is beta-testing this new format because tape decks are becoming harder to find, and to let everyone get a copy/make comments at once, instead of the long slow rotation process. Should I be seeing metaphors here with LJ and SWAPA? Probably not, but they're flickering around anyway...


Back to work. And thanks for reading my first entry!

-Jim

Comments

[wayman.livejournal.com]

Tape decks are getting harder to find? I think I have yet to see an all-in-one stereo (as opposed to component) for sale at Best Buy, Circuit City, etc, that doesn't have at least one play/record tape deck. So does that mean that fewer people own stereos, because now their computers can play CDs and radio feeds on the 'net, and tapes are the odd man out? Or are there new stereos I haven't seen with no tape decks?

Aren't the SWAPA all-directions-at-once CDs going to be a lot more expensive to participate in than the SRTs? Though my presumptions of expense entail each participant burning and mailing a dozen or more CDs once a year vs receiving an envelope and remailing it once a year (maybe adding a single tape if necessary), and those presumptions may be wildly incorrect (as I've never participated in either format). Do tell.

And what was wrong with the first batch of foam swords that they only lasted one year, and how are the new swords little/yellow/different/better? I've been meaning to ask someone that all summer. . . .

And welcome to LJ!

The decline of cassette tapes

[eclectic-boy.livejournal.com]

As you've sussed, I meant in the "more people use their computers for playing CDs, or bypass the physical realm entirely and go with MP3/Ogg/etc.
And I think you have been missing some all-in-one stereos on your recent shopping trips... here's the J and R Music all-in-one section; only about half of them include a cassette player: http://www.jandr.com/JRSectionView.process?RestartFlow=t&IWAction=Load&Merchant_Id=1&Section_Id=1549

Re: The decline of cassette tapes

[wayman.livejournal.com]

My initial reaction was "but . . . but those aren't stereos, they're just CD players with speakers!" This means I'm becoming a young curmudgeon, I guess.

Of course, there was actually a brief window when all-in-one stereos included a turntable on top, and I'm not bemoaning that loss, but that's largely because I feel like anyone who's enough of an audiophile to have records is likely to have a component stereo system. And I guess that's now being extended by the Powers That Make Stereos to "anyone who's enough of an audiophile to have cassettes". It's just that I have a small collection of tapes which I'm saddled with until I'm able to record them onto CDs easily. (Which is largely a matter of software and memory, I suspect, though I haven't seriously investigated this.)

SWAPA CDs

[eclectic-boy.livejournal.com]

(oh, and the word I missed was "sense".)

Yes, I think SWAPA CDs have the chance of being more expensive, though blank CDs are cheaper than tapes, and more people will be likely to have them.

foam swords

[crystalpyramid]

Some of the first batch of foam swords were apparently pretty good, but a lot of them were loosely wrapped, which meant they flopped around much more than any good sword should. Ben's figured out a good standard method for making them, which involves much more duct tape and muscle power. The extra duct tape, however, is actually a good thing, since it makes the center of mass of the swords lie roughly at the top of the grip - about where it should, for a sword. Less moment of inertia makes them feel much swooshier, at least as swooshy as a short, thick foam sword can feel.