Iconicles

I presently look for — but do not expect to recoup after this fruitless search so far — a small USB drive by PATRIOT that I carry in my pocket. I last saw it on the table next to me in a coffee shop Tuesday night. It is 16GB and has a black rubber exterior with red print on it. I am still waiting for the $35 rebate from Patriot through NewEgg. Of course, the USB drive has files on it which identify me so I am sure that if someone finds it s/he will notify me accordingly….

The problem is, I may be possessing things. Or I may be forgetting things. In defense of the latter argument, I offer the following list. In January I had eight boxes sent to me Media Mail through the USPS. They were labeled on the outside, and inside four of them were around 525 music CDs. When the packages arrived they were damaged beyond belief. So far I have replaced over 150 jewel cases, will never see some CDs of which several were just pieces, and regret that I am now daily reminded — as each new missing disk comes to mind — of the evil world in which we truly live.

Yes, it is a world of terrorists, but it is also a world of greedy, desperate, uncaring, selfish, violators. This particular activity appears to be a big business, and if we could get the FBI out of their stupid DVD copyright warning state to actually catch criminals, they might want to look at these operations which are stealing from citizens through federal offense by opening their mail and then profiting wildly from their booty, and some of them are seemingly networked across the country, making it look like multiple companies even though they are a single group of thieves.

At present I am in the process of replacing some of these CDs (by buying them back from some of the online thieves?) — look at some of the names on Amazon, while not all are questionable even though they actually are called buyback*** meaning they buy back but in reality it is you and I who are buying back — I certainly cannot afford to replace all, especially the collectibles which are a total loss, which at least half of these were. So far I have replaced around five and hope to replace at least 10. The entire process is just way too expensive and has left me at times faint of heart since these are some of the best pieces of music I owned.

If I did anything with my CD collection, I cherished it and took exquisite care of its contents as if they were my children, as I do with my DVD collection. But my valuable CD collection arrived at my door trashed, obviously rifled, and several boxes retaped. They looked like they were dropped from an airplane and just handling them gave me a sensation of worthlessness.

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Well, I’ve been able to work in just one domestic research conference so far this year: “Memorable Media Representation: Collusion and Terrorism in Iconic Media Messaging” was accepted for presentation in the Memory and Representation Area of the National Popular Culture/American Culture Association National Conference, New Orleans, Louisiana.

This is great, but really looking forward to a possible one-day workshop in Belgium and two great conferences this May where I am scheduled to present my research: “Broadband Instantaneity: Speed, Global Processing of Mediated Messaging, and Responsibility in Virtual Weaponry” has been accepted for presentation at The Good, the Bad and the Challenging Conference sponsored by European Co-operation in the field of Scientific and Technical Research (COST) 298 Action ‘Participation in the Broadband Society’ at the Center for Communication, Media and Information Technology, Copenhagen Institute of Technology, Aalborg University, Copenhagen, Denmark and “Recursive/Relaxative/Redemptive: Poesis of Fractal Art in Techne of New Media” has been accepted for presentation for Topics in Critical History in the Arts at the Expertise: Media Specificity and Interdisciplinarity International Conference, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel. It will be my first time in each of these cities and countries, and I have tried to leave 10 days open for travel in Israel.

So it is not quite as aggressive as last year’s six weeks in Europe, but still, quite satisfied at this end and looking forward….

Sometimes things look really, really bad. The recent snowstorm in South Carolina felled a tree onto my car and left me to overnight ponder what damage might have ensued.

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