mitsche

I use OS X for browsing the web, web-development, graphic design, video editing, and writing.

I use Windows 7 for music production and playing video games. At some point I want to start dabbling in game development, in which case I'll probably go with Windows for that, too.

I ssh into various Linux servers privately and at work. In my spare I sometimes play around with Linux distros on my desktop just to learn about the current state of affairs. I usually can't see any advantages in it over OS X other than the fact that's it's free software and that it runs on cheap hardware. I keep being curious though.

I don't use any virtual machines because I dislike the sluggishness and I don't really need them.

Sometimes I wish I could get by with only one OS without feeling crippled in some respect. My dream setup would probably be an OSS system that's great with multimedia stuff and has about a 99% adoption so hardware would be supported really well.

But that thought depresses me because it reminds me of the state reality is in, so I try not to have it.

My dad used to push me to get a degree. Now that I have a job he's cool about it. I still think he'd be happy if I finished college, but I prefer working on my music career in my spare time, which might not lead anywhere but is deeply satisfying.

I'm still somewhat bitter about dropping out. I don't particularly enjoyed school, as I always thought it kept me from learning the stuff I really cared about. But in retrospect I have to admit that I got exposed to a lot of stuff I might not have ever heard of elsewhere (like telecommunications engineering, Cisco administration, theoretical mathematics, and so on). Not that I learned much of of any of those, but I feel more rounded overall because of it.

Thanks to the respective hack my Samsung 24" has suddenly become acceptable to work on again. Awesome.

On a side note, games likes these convince me that video games have the potential to transcend into art, but that it's maybe not a good fit to actually call them video games, as the game mechanic plays a minor role in relation to the content.

If a game like A House in California wouldn't require a computer to be played, but rather interacting with physical objects instead, it would be called an art installation.

Just a thought. And it's off-topic really. Just wanted to share.

Full Throttle comes very close.

I don't play video games much these days, but I think it's safe to say that Tim Schafer is one of the best writers in the industry. Maybe that doesn't mean much, but God do I love his characters!

Both options require some amount of reputation on your part and/or some goodwill from the patrons.

One of these options will leave you in a worse position. I know which one I would prefer.

If you ever have something stolen from you, you'll quickly realize the difference between theft and copyright infringement.

Debates such as these keep orbiting around the definition of stealing because the term keeps getting used for copyright infringement out of lazy thinking or in order to facilitate an agenda.

Stealing is intrinsically "wrong" from a societal perspective because it puts those who take by force into a better position than those who earn by earning it, which is not sustainable.

Whether anyone is put into a worse position by copyright infringement (e.g. in the form of illegal downloading of music) is up for debate. But any serious debate should avoid the term stealing to describe the issue at hand.

When I was 23 I was more or less a complete moron with people, and for years to come. But it has improved to the point where I'm content. And I'm only 29 now.

If you were more specific about your problems with social interaction you'd probably get some good advice here.

Novelty acts? Sure. But they're proof that it's possible to become reasonably successful without the help of traditional media outlets if there's an audience for your work out there (I think most artists are–understandably–delusional about this one).

Anyway, I think curation is becoming more important and influental nowadays. And curators used to be much more (totally?) dependent on what the industry decided to provide them with.

It is no more so. I see no reason to worry about that (being a recording and performing artist myself).

This is something to be sorted out, and I hope you'll manage to do so sooner than later.

Take care.

Yeah, right. Because we all know that the one thing most people regret on their deathbed is not having spent more time at work.

I like working just fine. In my "free time" I'd rather make music, write in my journal, see friends or go on dates, cuddle with a beautiful woman and smell her hair or maybe just take a stroll through nature and get a sense for the hardly fathomable Universe I am a part of.

I don't know you. But your posting makes it seem like you are working hard in order to distract yourself from the fact that you're a pathetic philistine.

I hope I'm wrong, for your sake.

Now that I'm sober the motives for ending my life seem banal in hindsight. Cheers to your sister.

And keep in mind that a therapist is also -- to some extent -- an analyst. So he or she might expose things you wouldn't have been able to figure out yourself, either because you're not professionally trained, or because you're part of the problem.

And sorry, there's no such thing as therapy by proxy. It's a very interactive thing.

Regarding social anxiety: I was pretty much the same at your age, and I think the reason was simply a severe lack of self-esteem resulting in excessive self-consciousness. One thing that helped me was to realize that everyone is insecure to some degree, and that everyone is at least a bit worried about what other people think about them. Once I had realized that, I tried to make other people feel comfortable around me instead of worrying why I felt so uncomfortable. But this takes practice and time, which is why I still recommend seeing a professional. And when I say it takes time, then I mean that it takes time to to overcome the fear to do the things you're afraid of. Once you've done this a few times (or even just once), change can happen very quickly.

Try to worry less about people thinking of you as "the quiet guy". They probably don't think as much about you as you believe they do. They mostly think about how they appear to others, just more moderately than you (hopefully).

I'm confident that you'll overcome your anxiety sooner or later if you don't just ignore the issue, which you're not doing. So chin up!