Tron Legacy Soundtrack

I've been rocking out to this all day long, and it's probably never going to get old. December 17th can't get here soon enough. I'm not a cinemaphyle, but I'm almost positive I'll be one of those crazy people lining up for a midnight showing in 3D.

The Amazon exclusive MP3 version is only $3.99. Go. Now. Listen!

Orbital - Walk Now...

This track reminds me of the kinds of mobile mischief I used to partake in in 1996. I saved up a good chunk of cash from working at CompUSA and bought myself a brand new laptop at the time, an NEC Versa 550D. And boy, was it stylin' back then.

Modems, sound cards, and whatnot weren't very common on laptops. I bought a PCMCIA laptop modem and an acoustic coupler to go with it. When I got home to play with my new goods, the Orbital II album was playing, hence the flood of memories. Even while a senior in high school, I was quite the road warrior. This carried on into college. With this setup, I could get on Bulletin Boards, the Internet, and into the college's campus from virtually anywhere there was a phone, even if it was a payphone... especially if it was a payphone! And the wonderful thing about payphones is that you can't really trace a payphone down to a specific person unless you have video cameras rolling or can get there before the person leaves. This shield of anonymity often provided me with the brazen resolve to do a lot of things that I probably shouldn't have been doing.

Of course, now, we have EDGE and EV-DO wireless broadband, 1xRTT tethering, satellite, and almost ubiquitous IEEE 802.11 "WiFi" at our disposal.

Cascade - Escape

I'm heads down, writing some goofy applications for a new operating system, V2_OS. Sometime around the turn of the century, I threw a lot of energy into this project to help kickstart it. It's pretty much dead now, and whatever trace remains of my assistance with the project is long gone. I pretty much gave up after it was evident that much more talented coders were interested in helping. I maintained the source code repository for a while until they got their own CVS server up and running. Then I pretty much forgot about V2_OS, Joost, and all my buddies on the project.

V2_OS is part of why I left FishNet. It's a very long and complicated story. If you run into me some time, ask me and I'll share it.

A compilation with this track on it was in heavy rotation on my MP3 player while all of this was unfolding.

T.A.T.U. - All The Things She Said

When this song hit the airwaves my main passion was locksmithing. Specifically, messing with electronic combination locks meant for ATMs and floor vaults. This song brings back memories of me sitting in the kitchen of my old apartment with cables, keypads, spindles, housings and batteries strewn about. A screwdriver, soldering iron, a logic probe and a multi-tester are nearby. The smell and sound of sizzling soldering tip cleaner fills the air.

Silver Shadow - High Society

Racing in my first autocross event in my Focus. Simple as that. I'm in the paddocks waiting to take off, wearing a stifling full-face helmet, and I have the Slinky album playing. This is one of the songs I heard while I waited. Why this doesn't conjure up some other memory, I have no clue. I've heard the track hundreds of times.

Frankie Bones - All The Way Home

I'm tossing a rather expensive 42,000 RPM electric motor into an LXX Char-G chassis that will get a snazzy-looking Nissan Skyline GT-R R34 replica shell over it when I'm done. And boy, will it be fast. At least 10 miles per hour in real life.

Congrats! You've got more than $50 invested in an illegally imported radio control car that can go 10 miles per hour, and you think it's fast!

What the hell was I thinking?!

I was on a brief, expensive kick of modifying the hell out of stupid little radio controlled cars such as Zip-Zaps and Bit Char-Gs. They were smaller than matchbox cars, and -- once modified, pretty fast considering their size. If memory serves me correctly, this was in late 2002.

This song is off of a demo mix CD for Sonic Groove, a (now defunct) record label and vinyl shop in New York started by electronic music guru-brothers Adam X and Frankie Bones with Heather Heart as co-owner.

Hybrid - If I Survive

I'd just packed my proverbial bags at a local information security company, setting foot outside their door for what was sure to be the last time. Sick and tired of their goofy games, their crappy compensation, their politics, and their incessant prying into my personal life, I resigned my position effective immediately. With that, I gathered up the few books and the coffeemaker I kept in my office. I placed my belongings into a printer paper box and stepped out onto the crispy freak snow that was hiding under a thin layer of ice on that cold March evening. One of the many mix CDs I had made was in the CD player of my car. I found this track and blasted it as I drove to my other job... my only job.

To me, this song is one of freedom that transcends hardship and angst.