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My Gen X Playlist: What’s On Your Mind (Pure Energy) – Information Society

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We just learned a friend is going to compete in an Ironman Triathlon. For the record, that’s a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride and a marathon (26.2 mile run). Holy shit. He’s always been an outdoors guy, but this is ratcheting it up a level. The cool thing is, he used to be a little overweight as far back as last year. I wouldn’t say he was obese, but what do they call it? Husky? We hadn’t seen him in a year and we met him and his wife for Sunday brunch. He lost about a third of his mass. Impressive.

Hearing he signed up for the Ironman made me take stock of myself. I’m not the strongest swimmer, but I don’t need floaters either. I can ride a bike – without training wheels I might add. I’ll take credit for that, no matter how small. Running and I are not friends, but I’ve completed a half marathon before. I can at least hang my hat on that.

Apparently, there is a 16 hours time limit to finish the race. For reference, I was trying to remember how long it took me to finish the half marathon. My time escaped me, so I did a quick Google search. I’ve Googled my name in the past. I think everyone has at least once in this day and age. I know I share a name with a dentist in LA, a principal at a high school and a tech executive up north. I also remember seeing my half marathon time online as well.

As I scrolled looking for my time, I paused – a link caught my eye. When I clicked on it, I found my full name, my address, my cell phone number, my email address and my employer. Below that it listed my past phone numbers and addresses as well as the names of my parents and siblings. And this is me, a guy flying far under the radar. I never had MySpace, Facebook or TikTok. I have LinkedIn because of work and recently Instagram to look at cool backpacking and hiking stuff. Oh, OK. I have to admit, I created an X (formerly Twitter) account a few weeks ago. I couldn’t resist. I wanted to throw some shade at Trump and Vance and talking shit about the orange man and weird guy has been therapeutic for me. But all my social media is anonymous except LinkedIn. Yet there I was on the page.

So I’ve concluded there is just no hiding from the internet. As much as I try, my shit will always be out there. I’m a little upset, though. Not just because the details of my life are on full display, but also the fact they missed adding my half marathon accomplishment to my collection of stuff. If you are going to capture my information for the world to see, at least do me a solid and give me some bragging rights and throw that one on the pile. That extra bit of information may have made it all worth it. Damn.

Information Society released What’s On Your Mind (Pure Energy) in 1988. Rebuilding Rob would be happy to learn it has a Star Trek connection.

The “Pure Energy” vocal comes from Leonard Nimoy’s character Spock on the TV series Star Trek. In the 1967 Season 1 episode “Errand of Mercy,” Spock and Captain Kirk visit the planet Organia, where their citizens have advanced beyond the need for physical bodies. When two of them vanish in front of them, Spock says, “Fascinating. Pure energy. Pure thought. Totally incorporeal. Not life as we know it at all.”

At the beginning of the song, there’s another sample from the series: DeForest Kelley’s character Dr. McCoy saying, “It’s worked so far, but we’re not out yet.”

Songfacts

I know it’s pretty commonplace for artists to sample others and include it in their music. That’s actually really cool. On the other hand, I’ve been a victim of identity theft once before and am hoping to avoid scam artists from sampling my vitals for their nefarious ways. That’s not cool. The last thing I need is to Google myself and see another me out there living my best life without me. Unless they can figure out how to attach an Ironman to my creds. If they can do that, let’s talk…

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For a complete playlist, please click here.

For the Spotify playlist, please click here.

I want to know
What you're thinking
There are some things you can't hide
I want to know
What you're feeling
Tell me what's on you mind

Here i am in silence,
Looking round without a clue
I find myself along again
All alone with you
I can see behind your eyes,
The things that i don't know
If you hide away from me,
How can our love grow?

I want to know
What you're thinking
There are some things you can't hide
I want to know
What you're feeling
Tell me what's on your mind

I know i could break you down,
But what good would it do?
I could surely never know
That what you say is true
Here i am in silence,
It's a game i have to play
You and i in silence
With nothing else to say

I want to know
What you're thinking
There are some things you can't hide
I want to know
What you're feeling
Tell me what's on your mind

I want to know
What you're thinking
There are some things you can't hide
I want to know
What you're feeling
Tell me what's on your mind

I want to know
What you're thinking
There are some things you can't hide
I want to know
What you're feeling
Tell me what's on your mind

21 thoughts on “My Gen X Playlist: What’s On Your Mind (Pure Energy) – Information Society”

      1. Actually yeah, pleasantly surprised to find that a story I wrote for our local newspaper a few years ago was picked up by a sister newspaper one province over!

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  2. What a packed post! First, you could train for a 1/4 Iron Man. A woman (and her son) my wife knows did a 1/4 first then a half with her dependent son. She’s in her late 50’s, at least.

    Identity theft sucks. I didn’t realize that my WP account showed my main email address or I’d have used my alt address. By the time I figured it out, I’d been here so long I decided not to change it.

    You probably read about the recent data breach that exposed everyone’s social security number. Given the data lost there and all the other databases out there (not even on the Dark Web) we’re all pretty much known quantities.

    Something will have to be done about it. I’m not sure what.

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    1. Yeah, this one took a few turns!

      I receive a few letter per year from comps notifying me about data breaches. You’re probably right that we are all known quantities out there. And it shouldn’t be a surprise to me. But when I saw it all on one page, I said whoa!

      Good inspiration from your wife’s friend and son!

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  3. Another interesting post! My husband goes through these phases in life where he wakes up one morning and says, “I’m going to start training for a marathon!” And…he does. He has run 7 marathons to date, and he’s completed a half triathlon. The funny thing is, in between these fitness spurts he’s just an ordinary guy, a little “husky” who indulges in junk food, like the rest of us. I wish I had that kind of motivation and focus that he does! 🎽👟🥈

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  4. What I like so much about your posts is that you start with a current topic about your life now and somehow then link to a song that has a connection, sometimes a bit nebulous and sometimes just the title. Very cool, very interesting.

    I don’t know what music I was listening to in the ’80’s but it sure wasn’t whatever was popular. 80’s music is easily identifiable because it all sounds the same. Maybe that’s when I really got into country music…

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    1. Thanks, Grace. I’m enjoying writing and reconnecting with music. Sometimes I don’t know what pathway it will take. It can get a little muddled here and there. I just appreciate people taking time to stop by. Thank you!

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  5. Great post. Grace describes your process really well, so there’s really nothing for me to add there. It’s sure interesting (and a little scary with all the security breaches) how one’s information can get mined on the internet! The song may have lost a lot of weight, too, as it was too thin for me; the programmed percussion was an annoying feature.

    I wish your friend good luck! I’d be pretty much finished after a 112-kilometre ride, never mind 112 miles!

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  7. i’m a little surprised you didn’t already know all your info was out there! scary, yes– and in total agreement that they need to add your 1/2 marathon accomplishment. as to the song, i think this is the first ever song you’ve posted that i’ve never heard before (or, that’s not familiar to me). 🙂

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