You heard from music Paul. Now here's tech Paul.

Hello!

Nice to meet you. My name is Paul Di Meglio and I'm rather fond of technology. Not to the point where I'm some sort of cartoonish image of the stereotypical geek. No sir. My fondness with technology is perhaps relatively limited in comparison to some of the 'hard core' or 'lifeless loser' nerd. I do tend to consider myself somewhat knowledgeable. At least knowledgeable to the point where I hope to offer some tips, tricks and general insight into the vast and often confusing world of technology.

I'm going to have to watch what I say, however. Last time I made such a post along these lines I ended sparking the fury of many a Mac fanatic. If you are not aware, the Apple lovers are a group of frightening extremists who blindly support anything that comes out of Steve Jobs' slick and stylish womb. WAIT!

PLEASE! This was a joke! Don't flood me with comments and emails like last time! I'm sorry! You're all very smart and rational people who understand Apple's magnificent superiority of anything technology related. It's true.

While I'm still having a difficult time warming up to my Macbook, I do understand why people feel it necessary to vocalize their appreciation for this company. Microsoft has created such a wonderful mess out of the computer industry. The problem is that everyone uses Windows. Windows is terrible. When I say everyone uses Windows, you must understand that 'everyone' does included people who have no understanding of the concepts of virus and spyware and all the other horrors of computing. While this wasn't a problem pre-internet, the 'unknowing' have created a vast open market place for system attacks that plague each and every computer user. We can't really blame the 'unknowing' here. The true guilty party is Microsoft. Such a buggy, crackable, hackable and vulnerable operating system is a sheer shame.

This just scratches the surface. Do a couple of google searches and you too will find plenty of reasons why Windows is garbage and OS X is king. So while I do poke fun at the Apple lovers, please don't take it personally. Don't ridicule me. Don't flood me with hate mail. I'm just a long time Windows user having a hard time with a transition to another operating system. I don't doubt OS X's greatness. Not for a second.

Let's move on. Future Tech posts will be more constructive and supportive. (I hope)

Call to Arms - A Statement for Music

People of earth! Hear my plea.

Today we rise, just as we do any other day. We rub the sleep from our eye. We rinse the saw dust from behind our ears. We walk downstairs to turn on the picture box. These routines never change. The wheels of our existence are perpetually in motion. In this blaze ordinary world we tend to, and let's not mince words here, get bored. We stay up to all hours of the night, blindly hitting our keyboards, looking for an escape. Well here's your chance.

I'm not talking about any sort of extra-sensory perception here. Nor am I delving into any sort of form of religious fulfillment. Nobody needs that. Not ever. No ladies and gentlemen, what I'm talking about here is something that is within the reach of each and every one of you. I'm talking about music.

We all listen to music. There isn't a person on this planet who has not been exposed to music in one shape or form before in his or her life. Music is the one constant that exists throughout humanity. From the processed, packaged and sold popular music that exists in the western world today, to the native tribal chants of a lost civilization: music is everywhere. The tragedy is most of us never go far beyond what is presented to us via the media.

This brings me back to my initial point. With minimal effort you too can explore sounds that aren't necessarily what you have come to know as 'music'. You too can find an endless world of joy and satisfaction if only you let go of what you know and expect the unexpected.

In the coming weeks and months I'm going to explore my personal experience with music. This web log will serve as a launching point to a series of essays concerning the variety of music. You may not agree with what I have to say, but I still hope that you read with an open mind. Music has become one of the least explored mediums in our societies and this surely is a great tragedy. I'm not talking about genres or preferences here. I'm talking about the possibilities of sound and using our ears to receive these sounds to their full potential.

Welcome!

Welcome one and all to the site formally known as 'the meanderings of a pretentious genius fool'.

As you might notice, this is my first blog entry since early January. The fact is I lost interest in my blog. Actually the truth is I lost interest in blogs in general. What's the point? To assume that a person might be interested in the opinions of another person is absurd! Nobody cares! That's the truth of the matter. Thus, here is the genesis of my inevitable break from blogging. It felt increasingly hypocritical. How could I continue to pursue the act of blogging when I myself dislike the very concept of blog. (by the way, blog is a terrible word. try saying it out loud. stupid sounding isn't it?)

This brings me to another point...I'm blogging again! Yes indeed! Back in the game. I couldn't resist the temptation. In actual fact I've gone a step further this time. I've registered my very own url! Welcome to pauldimeglio.ca! It's basically the same thing as my old blog but I promise to keep things a bit more interesting this time around. I swear! Seriously! I've even signed up for a twitter account (twitter.com/pdimeglio) so you can keep track of my every move! That's right all you stalkers out there. Keeping track of Paul has just gotten that much easier. I'm practically doing all the work for you!

One last point. My other site, the Prog Rock Blog, seems to have fallen out of favour recently. Mr. Cooper and I just didn't have the time to record the show and edit it and post it and keep up with our studies at the same time. Also, the podcasting hosting prices were just a bit too much for my budget. Things may change over the summer and we may try to start that show up again. We were actually getting great ratings without doing any serious promotion. Just goes to show that an audience for Progressive Rock music still exists out there. Couldn't make me happier.

Thus concludes my first post. Hope you enjoyed. Now go home, turn down the lights, put on your favorite vinyl side and have a great night.