La de da

The mixed tape. I used to spend hours upon hours making mixed tapes.

See that? That is me, aged somewhere between 16-18, making one of probably hundreds of mixed tapes on my parent’s stereo.

Mixing songs into a specific order for someone is a special thing. It takes time and patience. Dedication for not just whoever the mix is for but also to the music. And everyone has a different tactic for it. I know many people who strongly believe that mixes for others should contain music that they might not know about yet.

Me…I choose to make things from the heart. Some songs, or even all, will probably be known to the listener. But just to know that I think of that song and them….that is the message. It’s like a letter or a card. But in music.

So when I came across The Shifted Librarian’s blog about Muxtape, I was just really pleased. While not as personal, time consuming or really as heartfelt as a mixed tape/CD, this new website rocks socks.

Seriously…you should play around with it. You just upload songs, organize them, and then play them. So, fair readers, here is my Spring Mix to you.

Enjoy.

http://yolaleah.muxtape.com/

Hello fair readers!

I have the day off today, which is a pleasant little surprise. So this morning I have just been playing about on the internet. Catching up on missed blog postings and all of Pitchfork’s news on SXSW…which I’m not at. And that makes me sad.

But this has basically led me back to multiple band’s Myspace pages, which in turn is bringing about a sense of….nostalgia maybe?

I eliminated my Myspace page just about a year ago. For a few reasons really. I had stumbled across the fact that News Corp. had bought it out…and that’s a little creepy.

Also I was just plain sick of the spam.

Various versions of that girl requesting friendship over and over again. Ugh.

But there were good things about Myspace.The quirky, clunky html codings of your friends, in all it’s glory and occasional ridiculousness.

I guess there is something a little endearing about being able to create your own code….or in most cases use Thomas to create your own code.

As much as I love Facebook, I have to admit missing that touch of personalization.

But what I miss the most, hands down, is the music.

There are bands that I discovered through Myspace that I now love and probably never would have found…ever…if it weren’t for the website. Just to name a few:

Tycho

Ulrich Schnauss

Goddamn Electric Bill

VHS or Beta

And that’s just a few.

I had actually first been introduced to Myspace in 2002 as a “music website”, which is kind of funny considering what most people use it for now.

Still I find myself returning to it, every now and again, to try and find some obscure little band’s music that just hasn’t made it’s way to ITunes yet…like Fleet Foxes, for example. And everytime I go back I wonder….Are there hundreds of bands that I’m potentially missing out on because I no longer have a Myspace page? Should I recreate my Myspace?

……

nah.

I’ll just have to find other ways to get my social networking music fix.

Well have a lovely weekend fair readers! And if you are at SXSW….I hate you.

(jk…kind of)

Hello fair readers!

Yes, it is Friday night. I know. But I have to work all day tomorrow. So what am I doing with my time?

That’s right. Go ahead. Laugh.

But seriously, I have discovered, with a wee bit of help from friends and blogs, two uber cool and free legal research tools.

That’s right. FREE. A word that doesn’t commonly come joined with the words “legal” and “research” very often.

That’s because of these two culprits

for the most part. And not that those publishers are by any means evil…at least…I don’t think so. They just charge oodles of cash for access to legal information.

So, as you can see, I was pretty psyched when I found out about these free websites that are actually quite progressive and efficient.

The first, and probably my favourite of the two, is PreCYdent Search Engine.

So. Freaking. Cool.

You can search for opinions and statutes, and then you can rate them, tag them, create PreCYdent widgets, put a PreCYdent facebook application on your facebook page….and lots of super cool 2.0-ish tools that are usually just not connected with legal resources.

The second, also free and cool, resource is The Public Library of Law.

This has LOADS of great, easy to locate info. Case law, statues, regulations, court rules, and omg even legal forms. I’m about to pass out….seriously.

I highly recommend librarians, particularly in public libraries, check out these amazing resources. The will be great tools for members of the public to start off their legal research. They are easily searched and don’t have hidden fees…at least not that I have encountered. It’s refreshing to see the legal research world opening up to 2.0 concepts.

I have said this before, but I will always say it again…three cheers for progress!

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

Hello fair readers!

I came across this site today: Purple states and it set me to thinking.

Purple states is web broadcast-style coverage of the primary elections. It is user created ala Web 2.0, but watch the introduction video. It is only user created to a point. It is professionally edited and enabled by the creator, New York Times.

The other day I was talking about Web 2.0 with my boyfriend and he said this, “Web 2.0 is over. It’s evolved. More complicated”. Is that true?

I suppose from the beginning 2.0 has always been a very broad, difficult to define term. It took a sixteen page, or so, article just to explain it by the man himself.

Yet I have always been lead to believe that the theory of 2.0 revolves around one major concept: user created content.

Take Second Life, for example. A world where the vast majority of the content is indeed user created.

As a former MMORPG player, I found Second Life to lack something….a little shine maybe? A good solid point and purpose. So I wonder in a world when 15 million users are playing the same games that made me slightly less excited about the clunky graphics of Second Life, how long will it be around? Is this just the first stage? A hint of metaverses to come?

I do not know the answer to these questions. I’m not sure anyone does. But I suppose that this is the glory of 2.0. It’s all so nebulous, yet exciting. People can barely define it but want desperately to be a part of it.

Still if this is the case, that 2.0 is “over”, then what is next? And most importantly, what are the librarians going to do about it.

Have a lovely Sunday fair readers.