The android’s conundrum

I really enjoy the new song by The Shins, “Australia,” but the lyrics make me feel a little dumb:

Time to put the earphones on…
No!

La la la la
La la la la
Laaaaaaa
La la la la

(Born to multiply) Born to multiply
Born to gaze into night skies
All you want’s one more Saturday
Well look here until then
They’re gonna buy your nice time
So keep your wick in the air and your feet in the fetters
‘Till the day you come in doing cartwheels
We all pull out by ourselves
And your shape on the dance floor
Will have me thinking such filth and gouge my eyes

You’d be damned to be one of us girl
Faced with a dodo’s conundrum
I felt like I could just fly
But nothing happend every time I tried

Wooo, ooooh!

A dual-tone under wall
Selfish fool and hoped he’d save us all
Never dreamt of such sterile hands

You keep ’em folded in your lap
And raise them up to beg for scraps
You know he’s holding you down
With the tips of his fingers just the same

But you’ll be pulled from the ocean
But just a minute too late
Or changed by a potion
You’ll find a handsome young mate for you to love

You’ll be damned to pining through the windowpanes you know
You’ll trade your life for any ordinary Joe
Will do and I will grow old
Your nightmares only need a year or two to unfold

Been alone since you were twenty-one
You haven’t laughed since January
You try and think of this as so much fun
But we know it to be quite contrary

La la la la la la la

Dare to be one of us girl
Faced with the android’s conundrum
I felt like I should just cry
But nothing happens every time I take one on the chin
Your humor in your coat you don’t know how long I’ve been
Watching the lantern dim starved of oxygen
So give me your hand and let’s jump out the window

“Faced with the android’s conundrum?” Say what? Someone help me out here, please.

Read Across America Day 2007, follow-up

So, in the last shift at Topaz Elementary School today, I read to Mr. Nale’s 3rd graders.

After last year’s success, I grabbed another Robert Munsch book, Wait and See, and actually read it ahead of time to get the feel for it (and to read the back cover blurb that said it was a story he made up on the spot on a visit to a Toronto school). It was a good choice, and was as big of a hit as the book I read last year. Two for two so far, Munsch!

This was once again a lot of fun, and I definitely recommend people get involved in Read Across America Day 2008 when it rolls around next year.

Read Across America Day 2007

This Wednesday, I’m again taking part in Read Across America Day at Topaz Elementary School.

It’s not too late for you to get involved, too. Call your local library, check with your local school or bookstore.

Wish the Cat in the Hat happy birthday and give a kid a free book!

It’s the Cat in the Hat’s 50th birthday, and to celebrate, Random House is donating to First Book for every birthday card sent to the cat. So do it now.

Apple to sell pre-loaded iPods?

I don’t know if it’s true, but Wired makes a convincing case:

The new contract clears the way for Jobs to sell iPods loaded with music.

Who cares?

Well, the iPod could become the new CD, especially if Apple starts offering cheap shuffle iPods pre-loaded with hot new albums or artists’ catalogs. Imagine a whole range of inexpensive, special-edition iPods branded with popular bands containing a new album, or their whole catalogs.

Flash-memory drives are now so cheap, software companies are starting to use them to ship software. H&R Block, for example, is selling the latest version of its tax-preparation software on a flash drive for $40 — the same price as the CD version. How much would it cost Apple to add a few music chips and some cheap earbuds?

Apple was prevented from doing this until now by the 15-year-old contract between Apple Corps, the Beatles’ music company, and Apple Computer. This contract precluded Jobs’ Apple from acting as a music company and from selling CDs or “physical media delivering prerecorded content … (such as a compact disc of the Rolling Stones’ music).”

These cheap album iPods could be sold at bus stations and airports: instant music, no computer required. Bands could sell pre-loaded iPods at concerts, maybe containing the concert they just played. There could be Broadway show iPods, movie soundtrack iPods and iPods burned at retail stores with custom play lists.