jason pettus | [story] I wish I were a machine

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[i am a camera]
A more confessional journal than this one, updated more frequently, always accompanied by a real-time cellphone photo. Maintained at my VOX account, using their excellent mobile client for Palm. RSS-enabled.

[randomvideo]
Two- to five-minute video reports from random events in my day-to-day life: gallery openings, indie-rock shows, drunken parties with my friends and the like. Recorded on my cellphone, a Treo 650, uploaded at a later date to my account at YouTube.com. RSS-enabled.

[randomaudio]
The same as [randomvideo] but with audio only, and posted in real time using cellphone technology, via Odeo.com. RSS-enabled; can be used in such podcasting software as iPodder and iTunes.

[flickr]
Candid photos from my day-to-day life in Chicago and elsewhere, courtesy of Flickr.com. RSS-enabled. I am also now maintaining a separate page there as well, tracking just my favorite images from other photographers.

[fabb]
A promotional website and blog for Fabb, the "virtual prefabricated housing" company I run within the strange videogame Second Life. Includes regular free tutorials on the SL building process.

[social bookmarks]
Each day I post 5 to 15 links online to other interesting things I've found on the web, over at my account at del.icio.us. A good option for those who want to find out what in the general culture interests me these days, in that I rarely post outside links here at my personal site. RSS-enabled.

[social networks]
Click on the following links to visit my profile page for that service: deviantART | GoodReads | LibraryThing | LinkedIn | Netflix | SecondLife Me | SecondLife Profiles | Shelfari

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The Jason Pettus Superfeed: One insanely busy RSS feed tracking 12 different places online that I update often -- not only my four blogs, but my Flickr and YouTube accounts, del.icio.us and LinkedIn too, my latest book reviews at GoodReads, my latest favorites at Google Reader, my movie queue list at Netflix, and my current status on GTalk. Maintained by the free service FriendFeed.com.

The Jason Pettus Widget (MacOS)

Direct links: Simply click on the following links to add my feed to the particular service: AvantGo | Bloglines | Technorati Favorites | MyYahoo | MyMSN | NewsGator | Feedlinx | mobileGlu |

A few of my categories have their own specific RSS feeds as well, listed below; right-click on them to copy their address, for getting just entries concerning those subjects delivered to you instead of the entire feed.

Business | Computers | Second Life
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Created and maintained by Jason Pettus on a Macintosh Intel Mini and Palm Treo 650. This site is graciously hosted for free by Jimi Sweet; I thank him immensely for doing so.

The following can also be found in the book Chicago Stories 1998. Click here to learn more, and to download a free electronic copy.

(This poem is performed in a strict 8/8 beat, with performer clapping his hands simultaneously. For this edition, the poem has been published in its original 8-beat stanzas.)

Some
times I get the sinking feeling
life is fast too fast and that I'm
getting left behind here in the
dirt.

Some
times events just slap me in the
face, I reel from pain and wonder
how I couldn't see that I'd get
hurt.

Sometimes things just seem beyond con-
trol.

Like
wars and kings and peace and crime and
old and young and black and white and
love and hate and sex and death, a-
ssassinations, coup-d-etats,

and
you.

Some
times I get the sinking feeling
you are fast too fast I should have
seen the warning signs there on the
road.

Some
times I kick myself, especial-
ly these last two days, I wonder
if you're really that bad of a
person I was victim to yes-
terday, if I caught you at a
bad time, there are issues here and
hate? I want to hate you and I
do, but not really I'm just pissed
off, I'm mad, I'm angry, I'm em-
barrassed, all my friends know what went
wrong except for me and I don't
know how to take this and so I
cultivate my fear and pain and
anger, yes I'm mad at you.

Yes, I'm really mad at you.

Sometimes I wish I were a ma-
chine.

I'd
clip my words and string them like a
tickertape parade, oh look, an
astronaut is home now from the
moon.

I'd
clip my words and string them like a
robot then I wouldn't have to
get my heart broke on the sixth of
June.

Just
chips and knobs and gears and wheels and
cogs and ROM and RAM and keys and
diodes, buttons, metal casing,
silicon and tickertape just
tick tick tick an unthinking machine.

Just
tick tick tick an unthinking machine.

Some
times I get the sinking feeling
life is fast too fast, events just
zoom right by and leave me so con-
fused.

Some
times I get the sinking feeling
you are fast too fast I was a
toy existing to keep you a-
mused.

Sometimes I wish I were a machine.

Just
tick tick tick an unfeeling machine.

Just
tick tick tick an unfeeling machine.

Tick tick tick

Copyright 1998, Jason Pettus. All rights reserved. This was published under a Creative Commons license; click here for details. Contact: ilikejason [at] gmail [dot] com.