At the sound of the beep... I will be 30 years old.

It happened. Yesterday was my 30th birthday. I think the days leading up to Friday were more traumatic than the actual event. I had increasingly more difficult mornings up until Friday morning- I couldn't get out of bed very easily and couldn't concentrate on my work.

I think if I had not been exercising on a regular basis, losing weight, and looking better, I probably would not have taken my turning 30 as well as I did.

Ultimately, I'm feeling okay about it.

Getting into eBay

Chadd came over today and we shot some pictures of my significant collection of Star Trek novels which I am going to try offer for auction on eBay. These are books I devoured in the mid-1980s as a teenager. Perhaps it's only appropriate now that I'm twice as old as the 15 year old I was then that I get rid of these items.

Chadd's an eBay expert compared to me, so he advised me on the best ways to word my auction description and title. It was nice to have someone to show me the ropes.

B3773R Living

Yesterday, as a small treat to myself, I went to Graywhale CD to see if they had any good used CDs or DVDs for sale. I ended up buying two DVDs and a CD.

One of the DVDs I bought was B3773R Living Through Circuitry a video documentary about the rave "underground" in the United States. It includes interviews with artists such as The Crystal Method, Moby, Electric Skychurch, DJ Keoki and others. It also includes dozens of interviews with attendees of rave parties who proclaim that raves aren't really about drugs as much as they are about music and that those who do drugs at raves couldn't find a safer place to do it.

I really enjoyed a fresh look at the rave scene. The film Groove (which I mentioned in a previous Fozzolog) also tries to depict raves as being just a fun, non-intimidating, safe place for people to go to listen to trance, techno, acid house, and other electronic music. But Groove is a fictional story. B3773R Living is a documentary which shows real people at real raves talking about real experiences.

Sure, there were mentions about people who overdosed at raves and died. But there was a lot of disclaimer involved - people saying that "new school tweakers" show up at raves just to do drugs because their parents told them not to. DJ Heather Heart defended the drug use by saying, "People do drugs everywhere whether it's a rock concert, football game, or an opera."

I found that argument a little hard to follow, but I do agree that raves are a fairly safe place to go to. For one thing, nobody's going to force you to do drugs. They're easy to find, but if you imagine raves as being someplace where everyone is approaching you and pressuring you to take this or drop that, you're wrong.

I've never been to a rave. I've looked into it because I really want to go. I doubt I'd do any drugs, myself. The music alone is a drug to me. Incidentally, DJ Keoki mentions something similar to this in one of his interviews.

Also worth mentioning here is the fact that I found out about this film last year through eMusic - an online music service I subscribe to - which featured the soundtrack for B3773R Living Through Circuitry along with a special eMusic collection of acid remixes of some of the music featured in the film. I really have enjoyed eMusic.