CarbonStated

The internet is full of empty promises, one of which are the ubiquitous ads promising to teach you the secrets to getting upgraded to first/business class.  Of course, we all want to sit in front of the plane.  We all want to be the target of those envious looks of people streaming past us to the steerage compartment.  With a drink in one hand and your legs stretched, the skies are far more comfortable.  Your Local Internet Whore has flown in the front of the plane a few times and can report that the upgrade is worth it.

But let's be frank, unless you have several tens of thousands in your bank or frequently flyer account, you are not getting anywhere near first class.  And, please, don't be an asshole and just sit up there.  The flight attendants are far smarter than you.

Your next best bet is to avoid those really shitty seats in coach.  You know, the seats that don't recline or force you to enjoy the odiferous deposits of your fellow passengers in the lavatories. To the rescue, comes www.seatguru.com.  With seat maps and reviews of every seat on every major airline, you can sit in the "better" seats in coach and avoid the worst.  Without fail, your YLIW always checks the site before picking my seats.  Trust me, your life will be better though I cannot guarantee that the middle seat will be taken by the physical equivalent of two people, if you know what I mean.  Happy travels!

How legit are our music collections nowadays (yeah, I said nowadays - like a boss) when we literally have weeks and weeks worth of digitally-purchased, or even "pirated" music sitting on our hard drives? It used to be that people scoured record stores, garage sales, and swap meets to find rare and out-of-print albums to bolster their collections. Now they can sit on their ass-hugging la-z-boys and click through iTunes and Pirate Bay, instead of developing blisters by flipping through dusty record (CD?) bins. What's more, is that we have the music; just not the sources. There's nothing tangible - no physical disc, album art, or liner notes. It feels slightly cheapened.

In the age of bit torrents and music blogs it's easy to forget that nostalgic feeling of tearing through the annoying shrink wrap and clever sticky security device along the top of a brand new compact disc. I, for one, miss that feeling. I miss the album art and liner notes, part of the art that goes into making a record. In some cases, it's every bit as important and attractive as the music itself. I still try to buy physical CDs as much as I can, but I'm as "guilty" as anyone for downloading - even legally. But one thing's for sure: if this was even five years ago, my iTunes stats would definitely not read "6951 items, 53.4 days, 39.49 GB." I guess my real question is... Is it worth sacrificing tangibility to have access to so much more music, so much more easily? Thoughts or additions to the comments, please.

http://oklahomacity.craigslist.org/fuo/1043028899.html

Surely someone was doubly reprimanded for this little number on page 32 of The Intention Experiment.

http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/iha-carlos-hanson-schlesinger-form-band-1003942166.story

"Excuse me gentlemen but what is all the hub-bub about?"