Matt Disapprov.es

What is Debt? – An Interview with Economic Anthropologist David Graeber | www.nakedcapitalism.com | Readability

Fri, 26 Aug 2011 15:22:25 -0400

What is Debt? – An Interview with Economic Anthropologist David Graeber | www.nakedcapitalism.com | Readability:

Totally fascinating history of debt, which comports well (I think) with theories about the origin of social institutions in cooking.

Sometimes I'm a geek

Thu, 28 Apr 2011 17:20:21 -0400

I’ve been trying to get this shot for the last three...

Fri, 08 Apr 2011 21:06:45 -0400

I’ve been trying to get this shot for the last three years. Better late than never. (by MattBowen)

Laura needed some shots of her sewing kit for her fashion blog...

Sat, 12 Feb 2011 11:59:00 -0500

Laura needed some shots of her sewing kit for her fashion blog this morning, so after, I did some macros of the pieces in it. I was happy with the results.

Sewing Kit High-DOF (by MattBowen)

"Mathematics is not about answers, it’s about processes."

Sun, 19 Dec 2010 18:28:39 -0500

“Mathematics is not about answers, it’s about processes.”

- From an essay called “What Math?,” which discusses the problems in math education. I think it gets at the central problem with our math education: math should be taught as a way of looking at the world (similar to great literature or philosophy), and instead it’s taught as a process useful for calculating the interest on a car loan or factoring out roots from an equation.

I didn’t get it until calculus, when the connection with physics started to click and suddenly I saw looking at the world in terms of how it changes as a really powerful way of thinking — what was sad is how little this sort of perspective had ever been suggested in the 11 years that lead to calculus.

"If you cook, your family will eat dinner together. If you cook, you will naturally have a more..."

Sat, 11 Dec 2010 10:14:45 -0500

“If you cook, your family will eat dinner together.
If you cook, you will naturally have a more sustainable household.
If you cook, you’ll set a lifelong example for your children.
If you cook, you’ll understand what goes into food and will eat more healthily.
If you cook, you’ll make your home an important place in your life.
If you cook, you’ll make others happy.
If you cook, people will remember you.”

- About food52 - food52 - food community, recipe search and cookbook contests

I’ve decided to start learning how to make synths in...

Sat, 27 Nov 2010 01:26:04 -0500

I’ve decided to start learning how to make synths in Absynth, and this is what happened. It sounds like a 30-second trip into scary-clown town. Here’s hoping future endeavors are at least a little less absurd.

I Found the Perfect: Like it's my job

Wed, 24 Nov 2010 09:21:06 -0500

I Found the Perfect: Like it's my job:

ifoundtheperfect:

I’ve decided to write this blog because I’ve got a feeling that I’m missing out on something good. I love art, music, theater, and literature, and I’ve had a great time experimenting with all these things at some point in my life. I’ve been wondering lately, though, why I can’t say the same about…

I’m going to be helping with this project, and I’m excited about the blog.

More Hipster Dinosaurs

Tue, 12 Oct 2010 21:39:26 -0400

More Hipster Dinosaurs:

I really like these quite a bit.

Crafty BBoys (51 of 83) I shot a ton of pictures of...

Sun, 10 Oct 2010 14:01:12 -0400

Crafty BBoys (51 of 83)

I shot a ton of pictures of breakdancers (or bboys) at Crafty Bastards; this one remains my favorite, although several are pretty good. You can see the whole set of flickr.

We went to an Alpaca farm today and saw a great many Alpaca, a...

Sat, 18 Sep 2010 18:25:57 -0400

We went to an Alpaca farm today and saw a great many Alpaca, a horse, and some chickens. It was a nice day to be outside.

Minute of Music: Pivot

Mon, 31 May 2010 12:01:37 -0400

It appears that it’s time to stop posting music for a little while. The project started to get me thinking about music and writing music regularly, and that it did. However, I want units of music more than a minute now, and the self-imposed push to have something to publish is causing me to make progressively worse tracks — and lately, to make no tracks at all. It’s also preventing me from exploring creative avenues like sound and synth design, as I wouldn’t have anything to post, and I have a strong desire to post. So, the routine I tried to use to get me to write more music now has me writing less music, and that means it’s time to push pause — or more, to invert the rule that I publish what I produce and tell myself not to publish what I produce. The interesting lesson, to me, is that a good routine can be creatively liberating for a while and then become creatively stifling, and the important thing is to know when that’s happened.

I shot some pictures of my setup for automating a mechanical...

Sat, 29 May 2010 12:07:36 -0400

I shot some pictures of my setup for automating a mechanical typewriter. The servo macro is my favorite, but they’re all pretty nice (slideshow below):

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. But apparently, after...

Fri, 28 May 2010 14:58:37 -0400

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. But apparently, after not writing any music for several weeks, my sonic self took revenge. This won’t be the last track you hear from me this weekend.

yourlifeisshowing: Of course I noticed this while worrying...

Mon, 10 May 2010 22:36:23 -0400

yourlifeisshowing:

Of course I noticed this while worrying about something ;)

I shot macros this afternoon downtown. Several came out nicely....

Sat, 01 May 2010 17:42:42 -0400

I shot macros this afternoon downtown. Several came out nicely. Check out the whole set (a whopping five).

This is very much a draft of a song — I have a bunch of clips...

Sun, 04 Apr 2010 22:40:20 -0400

This is very much a draft of a song — I have a bunch of clips recorded in live that I arranged pretty roughly into a typical verse/chorus combo.

On the downside, it’s not really smooth, it’s missing bridges and transitions, and the only real mixing I did was to drop a master compresser on it.

On the upside, I write it to be playable by three people, it uses drums sequenced on the kaossilator, and the guitar comes from my neat new PRS semi-hollow. I have some ideas for lyrics bouncing around, so hopefully this comes back more fully realized before too long.

Tech Tuesday: Virtual Worlds

Wed, 31 Mar 2010 08:10:19 -0400

Tech Tuesday: Virtual Worlds:

On of my favorite former professors, Matt Kirschenbaum, was on Kojo talking about the archival challenges of video games. It’s a fun listen.

Having fallen off the music-making wagon because life just got...

Sun, 28 Mar 2010 22:48:59 -0400

Having fallen off the music-making wagon because life just got too busy, I decided I needed to take this project less seriously for a minute. Thankfully, nothing kicks you back into fun mode like the kaossilator. I recorded it into Record, used some of the built in processing to make the sound a little richer, and here’s a 1 minute dance track like I used to post.

This is almost unbelievably geeky, but it’s also really...

Sun, 28 Mar 2010 15:01:47 -0400

This is almost unbelievably geeky, but it’s also really neat that someone built the machine and that it works so well.

A Turing Machine - Overview (via therealmdavey)