It hit me the other day that it would be cool if after a musician’s death, they had enough of his music to do a 24 hour tribute. Now that’s a new goal for me. I want to release enough music to fill 24 hours without any songs being repeated. Between Reverse Psychology, Meeting of Minds, and Rough Drafts, I already got the first 2+ hours out of the way. Now some (very roughly estimated) numbers:

• I have to release 21+ more hours of music to meet my goal.
• Over the past 2 years I’ve released 1 album per year.
• Each album is around 60 minutes.
• I need to release 21 more albums.
• If I stick to doing an album a year, I can meet my goal before I reach retirement age.

En Route is a new series/section where I will talk about the noteable things I do or see during my travels around Philly. So without further ado . . .

• I almost hit a girl in a motorized wheelchair with my bike. She came off the sidewalk right into my path without looking or slowing down. After a dramatic skid, I stopped about a foot away from her. The moment was extra awkward because I kind of knew her. I met her through a mutual friend, I didn’t see her for a long time, and now when i see her, she doesn’t seem to recognize me.
• In the park, I saw a guy playing an acoustic-electric guitar in a way I haven’t seen before. He was using the fact that it was amplified to make sounds you normally wouldn’t get from an acoustic guitar. I’ve only ever seen electric guitar players play that way. More acoustic-electric players should take advantage of the fact that they’re not playing a normal acoustic.

You know how when somebody does something that bothers you, you’re supposed to deal with it right away instead of letting it fester? You didn’t know? Well now you know, and the knowledge will help your relationships a whole lot. Back to my point – I knew I shouldn’t let things fester, but I’ve been letting this one thing fester. It’s been bothering me for several years I think, but I have never ever said a thing about it – not to an offender, not to a sympathizer – I’ve bottled it all up. It’s way past time that I let it out, so today is the day:

URLs do not use backslashes!!!

Phew! That felt good. Most people do not seem to know the difference between a slash and a backslash – sometimes I wonder if people even know that slashes exist. Before the worldwide web, this wasn’t much of an issue, but now that people are regularly giving out website addresses, it’s a big deal. Especially now that MySpace is the big thing.

“Oh yeah, just check me out on MySpace. Myspace dot com backslash badfriggingrammar.”

Why does it bother me so much? Several reasons:

1. Colloquial use of improper English is only acceptable when it makes a word easier. For example, “Ain’t” takes less time to say than “is not” or even “isn’t.” “Backslash” however, doubles the syllables of “slash.” Why make a simple word more complex? Better question, why make an already unwieldy URL even more difficult to say than it has to be?
2. It’s one thing to accidentally substitute a similar word for the correct word, but “backslash” is the polar opposite of “slash.” How would you feel if people considered you and your arch-nemesis suitable substitutions for each other? It’s just not right. Spelling a URL with a backslash is like baking a cake with salt.
3. And I guess if you don’t know how a cake is supposed to taste, salt could be fine, but I know it should be sugar. If only I could be ignorant of what a slash – is like so many other people seem to be, I’d be fine . Unfortunately, that bliss is not mine.

It’s horrible – at first I thought it was just a few non-tech-savvy people misusing “backslash,” but it’s not. I cannot recall ever hearing anyone spell a URL with a slash. Every time I hear “backslash,” I cringe on the inside, but on the outside, I’m all smiles. I know it was wrong of me to hide my feelings instead of confronting the problem. I’m trying to make up for it by telling everyone that I can reach – it’s a slash!

It takes dedication.
It takes dedication, and effort and work and time.
It takes focus, and knowledge, and . . . it’s hard.
It gives satisfaction
It gives satisfaction, and happiness and relief and joy.
It gives pride and pleasure and . . . it’s good.
It’s hard to achieve, its good to achieve.
Anything worth gaining hurts to get,
And I can testify to the truth of cliché with this blood sweat.
Tearing myself away from a possible future
Has proven impossible since I gained the knowledge -
“I can make it happen.”
And now it has happened.
I’m happy, feasting on the satisfaction,
Relieved to be free to be proud and pleased
With the result of the hard work and effort
That I put in for so long
Because I knew I had to be focused,
A living dedication to purpose.
But what do you propose comes next?