this is just plain creepy
altho the bathroom shot did give me a laugh. that's about it. otherwise, creepy.
Monday, October 31, 2005
this morning, our behated monkey fuhrer announced his(?) choice to replace retiring supreme court justice, sandra day o'connor, picking Sammy Alito.
regardless of the fact that he is a good or bad judge, listening to NPR (i believe it was Robert Siegel) talking about the impending announcement this morning and he made the comment describing Sammy as "a judge committed to the law". i realize that he probably read what someone dug up, but M had the same reaction i did.
what an empty and pointless statement to say.
shouldn't we all be 'committed to the law' as proper law abiding citizens? and shouldn't judges be especially 'committed to the law'? i certainly hope so.
the other comment that was made by someone (i think it was an interview with someone, but i don't recall who) was that Sammy 'respected prior judgements'.
that too doesn't say a whole lot, now does it?
as a semi-civil person, i may respect your opinion on a subject, but i certainly do not have to AGREE with your decision. i may respect a judge's decision, but i don't have to AGREE with their decision.
just because you respect someone's decision/prior judgement, does not mean you are required to agree with them.
so where does that leave us? pretty much where we started, only knowing what little we know about Sammy to begin with. nothing is advanced other than the waste of our time. (which you have just done if you read all the way thru this)
and for shits and giggles, i listened to a few minutes of the monkey fuhrer do the announcement, and it was nothing short of a reading from the A volume of Encyclopedia Britannica with a half-assed joke about how Sammy and monkey fuhrer are both married to librarians.
thank goodness for Residential goodness....
Sunday, October 30, 2005
I
M&i headed out today to enjoy some of the nice weather we had today (compared to yesterdays white shit) and during our travels, we stopped by the mall to meander thru, and i spotted something (i forget what) that was an iSomething, so i wondered aloud "What does 'i' mean?"
it seems as tho everything is an 'i' thing.
iMac (which is probably the first instance of an 'i' thing)
iPod (which popularized 'i' things)
iShower
iCheerio
iCar
iShoe
what's next, the iDiaper? (available in both iNfant and iNcontinent versions)
in searching, i did find one place where someone asked this very question, and someone said that it stood for 'internet'.
i suppose that makes sense, but what if it stands for something else?
idiot
imbecile
inigo
information
indigo
innocent
but then, i guess this was somewhat rhetorical if i'm asking this when i have an answer. but who knows. maybe someone else out there is wondering.
Saturday, October 29, 2005
in honor of Halloween, here's what the Boston.com (w/soulsucking registration wanted - use BugMeNot (may or may not work, but i usually have good luck)) thinks are the 50 Scariest Movies of all time.
i'll say it's a list of the 50 Scariest Movies of the moment. some of them will never come off the list (Exorcist, Alien (which has a picture of an alien from Aliens, not Alien), Halloween) and a few suprises, like their #1 choice. (certainly high on my list of creepy/scary movies)
it is interesting to see that they don't just pick movies that are just bloody or gory, but some that are more of the psychological fuck with your head type movies.
here's Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments, which is more scariest movies and not moments.
and finally, RetroCrush has a few lists as well. this years is 100 Greatest Horror Movie Performances. in past years, we've had 100 Scariest Movie Scenes, Top 100 Monsters.
and FINALLY, i found a Channel4 list of the(ir) 100 Greatest Scary Moments which should prove interesting.
Friday, October 28, 2005
normally, i wouldn't post something like this because i don't care about a person's sexuality. but i couldn't help but laugh at the comment on Best Week Ever's blog regarding Sulu coming out (of what? the toaster? the car? enterprise? a local bar?).
as i've now been infected by the comment, i figured it was my duty to infect the rest of you. you'll never see it the same way again...
live long and prosper.
heh
"you can't swing a dead cat in Washington (DC) without hitting a republican under inditement"
- MA Rep Steven Lynch (D)
Thursday, October 27, 2005
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
question of the day
fox25 news at 5pm has a question of the day. it's not my question of the day, but i figure i'll answer it here as i'm sure if i took the trouble to email my answer to them, it'd never make it on air.
q: what don't you like about driving in bad weather?
a: stupid drivers.
granted, i think the majority of the drivers on the road are fucking idiots, but for some reason, when the weather is bad, the stupid gene seems to kick in. lane changes are haphazard (with an emphasis on hazard). driving 15mph in a 65mph zone with additional stop and starts. i'm all for slowing down when road conditions are less than favorable, but i have my limits on how much i'm willing to slow down. i like to get to where i'm going, just like the next person, but c'mon people, drive like you actually want to get where you are going.
keep out of the right lane so that people who are trying to get on or off the road can do so w/o having to come to a complete stop and wait to merge.
know the road you are driving. if you are going all the way from the NH border into boston, then keep in the left lanes where there should be less merging and traffic moves a little more freely. weaving in and out of traffic isn't going to get you there any sooner. i couldn't tell you how many times i've watched a car go past me, weaving in and out of traffic only to be stuck behind me 5 miles down the road because they get stuck in a lane that doesn't let them move back into a faster lane.
i could go on, but i'd only make myself upset.
just what i wanted to wake up to
tomorrow, my rens embark on a very cool trip to China for 2 weeks, and i hope they have a good time and get to see and experience all kinds of things while there. so this morning i wake up to NPR talking about how LAX is working with the CDC (which is working with other airports, but LAX was the one of choice for the article) one how to deal with the possible flu pandemic if someone starts showing symptoms on the flight from asia. they'd basically take the sick people off and quarantine them in a negative pressure chamber (really? i was picturing something like this) and everyone on the plane would be taken and isolated for the 24-48 hours it takes to confirm the illness.
now, if they people removed really are sick, then the rest of the passengers are quarantined for 7-10 days to see if anyone else is going to get sick. if not, then they are released. and i imagine, if some more people start showing symptoms, that would extend the passenger quarantine.
so that's making me feel REALLY good about my rens trip.
Monday, October 24, 2005
oh well. it looks as tho i get to attend a funeral on 11/5. time TBD. my great aunt passed away yesterday, rather peacefully i understand. her health has been declining for some time now, and apparently at her last doctor visit, he suggested getting hospice care which is generally a bad sign.
to her credit, she was a full-blooded W, which suggests i have a chance at living a long time (she was in her mid-90's, my grandfather died in his mid-90's, it seems to be a trend in the family) chatting quite happily with the nurses when she just faded out and passed away ~30 mins later.
according to mom, she has already been cremated, with a wooden bust of a viola teacher (her's i believe, that may help explain the excentricities in my head).
i wouldn't have to go, but unfortunately, with my rens flying to China in 2 days, flying back 2 days after the funeral, and a brother out west who seems to think a random call while waiting in line for Episode III constitutes communication, probably won't make it east bound. so, that leaves me to try and put in an appearance for this side of the family. oh. joy.
time to plan....
Sunday, October 23, 2005
Doom
saw Doom this afternoon with JJ. it was ok. nothing special, and a few minor plot twists, but all in all, it was fun. low quality popcorn movie. not quite grade-z. grade-x i guess.
fairly straight forward movie. scientists fuck with nature. nature fucks with them back. fairly basic one-liner dialog. no one overly lovable. your hero has a personal demon. he faces it. he blows it up with a grenade.
the first person shooter scene was pretty cool, and very much like you'd expect in Doom/Doom3/Quake/Quake2/Quake3/Quake4.
and TK, you'll be glad to know that it took time for them to zombify.
for anyone unsure if you want to see it, it's certainly worth a rental/netflix.
a follow up
the other day i wrote about how i had bad news and good news about losing/replacing the removed battery and charger for my drill. i figured i'd stop by the home depot on the way home from work on friday to see what it would cost to get a replacement cordless drill, as at that time, having not found any reference to a 14.4v battery/charger on the ryobi website, figuring i'd just have to replace it outright.
well, as i was parking, i could see a paddy wagon (i didn't even know we used them in sommerville) and sure enuff, there were the police, leading a (seemingly at the time) well behaved person from inside home depot into the back of the paddy wagon. i couldn't help but chuckle and wonder what he had done to get himself arrested. all i could picture at the time was that he had been arrested for shoplifting something small like a few screws, as i can't really picture someone trying to shoplift a sheet of plywood, or stuff a cordless drill down his pants.
so, i head into the store chuckling and head towards tools. i'm quick to find the 5 piece set (18v Combo II) they have for $169 and i think that's a little steep for what i'm looking to replace. so i look around and finally find a drill/flashlight combo which is a little more reasonable at $100, but it's still the 18v set. then i find the replacement batteries and charger for the 18v and i start getting a glimmer of hope that maybe i can find a replacement battery and charger (those were $25 and $20 respectively, so $45 is even better). so i start scanning everything and then i see what looks to be a near holy grail - the updated version of my drill. and for $80, i can get the new version of my drill, 2 batteries and the flashlight with charger.
that fills me with hope that i can get a new charger and battery again and i start looking harder. the good news is i found the battery ($24). i didn't find the charger. DOH! right now, i need the charger more than i need the battery, so that didn't do me a whole lot of good.
so i headed home, but i don't feel quite as bad about getting a replacement now. i checked the home depot down the street from me, and they had the same inventory (battery, no charger) so for the moment i'm in a holding pattern, but i got part numbers this time.
i looked it up online, and it appears as tho i can get a replacement charger from some place that sells replacement parts for ryobi (and other companies) for $35. the batteries are $30, so having seen the $20 18v charger at home depot, something tells me i may have to pay a premium for the replacement.
OR as i started thinking about it, if i go that route:
$35 charger (online)
$24 battery (home depot)
that's $59. (wow, i can do simple math) but that doesn't include shipping on the charger, and so i should expect up to $10 just for the charger which puts me in the $70 range.
didn't i say earlier that to buy the updated version of my drill, it would cost $80? and that comes with drill, flashlight, charger and TWO batteries?
hmmm....
when i got home, i talked to KO to let him know what i had found (no word from assclown window contractor) and he said i should buy the replacement and if i get the charger/battery back, i should just keep them, giving me an extra battery/charger.
decisions decisions decisions....i'm not going to go out and buy things today, as i'd like to hope they assclown window contractors have realized that mine is 14.4v and they are using 18v ones and they don't work well together (maybe?) and have set them aside and aren't using them for the moment.
so, the saga continues...
(btw - i wanted to put links to the various bits, but the home depot site for some reason seems to be uncooperative and the links i'd copy would go somewhere else.)
well, i have a backlog of blog entries i need to get typed out, so i'll try and slog thru them in the coming days. i seem to recall saying something like this the other week, but i'm not going to say "this time i mean it, really!"
i'll try, that's about all i can do. right now tho i'm up a lot later than i prolly should be, but had i not been up, i wouldn't have this entry to my "oh, that's pretty cool to me" moment that most people prolly wouldn't care a great deal about.
a few minutes ago i heard an interesting sound of thunder. not your traditional sound of thunder, but one that reminded me of the space mines Jango Fett used in the asteroid field against Obi-wan. it was that loud minor chord on an electric stringed instrument. the only difference was that it wasn't quite as sharp sounding (going from silence to *TWANG*), rather it went *twang* and faded out in a more linear fashion, rather than a fast decay in the movie. it was pretty cool.
i wonder if that means something struck the watertower near here? prolly not as i'm sure i would have seen the flash and it would have been a LOT louder...still, pretty cool.
Friday, October 21, 2005
keyboards of the PC kind
i had an interesting experience yesterday with a users keyboard. MED for some reason or other has one of the old IBM buckling spring-clicky keyboard, and it reminded me of just how much i used to love using those keyboards. the only thing i didn't like about them was that they weigh a ton (nearly as much/more as my laptop). but i always loved the feel, and would love to get one for the PC on my desk. and it seems as tho you can still get them, or at the very least, the same style/feel as the IBM ones. for some odd reason, i was thinking about them the other day, so when i was doing some work on MED's PC, i was suprised to see the keyboard in there. missing the F12. classic.
i've used a lot of different keyboards over the 20+ years i've used computers, but the old IBM's (88 keys, not 101 keys) were among the first i used, and the whole feel has stayed with me thru the years. i guess it's semi-comparable to that 'you never forget your first love' thing. and fortunately, i'm not alone...
bad news good news
well, the construction on the house is coming to an end, but as KO said to me this morning, the last 20% of the work is taking 80% of the time. he's waiting on the shutters, finish a few windows (including 2 of mine) and eventually, this phase of the project will be done. he mentioned to me the other week that he wanted to redo the walls/carpet on the stairs to the apartments, but i suggested that might be better off done in the spring. why ruin brand new carpeting as people tromp in and out with slushy snow covered boots this winter? he seemed receptive to the idea of waiting.
anyways, a few years ago, the rens bought me a nice Ryobi 14.4v drill that had a second battery. i've liked it a lot - the 14.4v provides enuff power to do what (little) i do (mostly putting screws in and out of things). but it also wasn't so unbalanced that it was awkward to use. (dad and i had a discussion about this when it was given to me - he has an 18v drill and didn't like it as much as he liked the 14.4v he has (couldn't tell you how many he has, but it's more than a few me thinks) as the battery on the larger one is just that, larger, so the balance is off on it. i agree, the 14.4v was nicely balanced). so knowing that people would be in my apartment during window replacement, i moved it around, but always kept it in a few locations. so i moved it out of the way (by my closet) when the first few windows were done and didn't think too much about it. then i remember putting it back so i could charge the battery, but that meant putting it back where i normally kept it.
well, the windows were finished and then the other weekend, i decided it was time to rehang some of my blinds, so i grab my drill and discover that the battery is dead. i look around for the charger and can't find it, but don't think too much about it at the time. prolly a saturday morning, close to M's arrival so i was distracted. a few days later (prolly our Wed. dinner night) M asked me about hanging the blinds (which were on the floor at the time) and i start to look for the charger again. but dinner is ready, so i make a mental note to look for it again later. promptly forget and then last weekend, she reminds me about the blinds. i start looking again, but still can't find it. at this point, i'm beginning to wonder if it's walked. we head out and on wednesday night, i decide it's time to start really look for it. i start looking everywhere, in boxes, under my couch, under my bed, in the closet, and it's nowhere to be found.
so yesterday morning, i resign myself to the fact that it has probably walked, and i'd like to believe that it was picked up accidentally when the windows were installed. frustration is setting in, in part because i didn't notice this sooner, but more because it was a gift, and at this moment in time, i have no way to charge the 1 remaining battery i do have. (the little 7.2v one has an adapter that plugs into the battery directly, no charging station. if i could do that, i'd grab my multi-DC adapter thing and use that) so what i'm left with is a gift, that has sentimental value that is currently useless. and to make matters worse, when i looked online, Ryobi no longer makes the 14.4v products. i couldn't find it listed anywhere on their website. (which didn't make me feel any better)
this morning, i finally get a chance to talk with KO about it and he mentions that they were using Ryobi stuff as they would leave them in his garage, so his belief is like mine, during clean-up, someone picked it up w/o realizing that it didn't belong to them. so he offered to pay for a replacement charger and battery, but i mentioned that they didn't seem to make them anymore. he then offered to pay for a replacement drill set, but i balked a little and explained that it was a gift, tugging at the heartstrings. he said he'd call them to see if they had an extra they didn't remember having, but if not, he'll pay for the replacement.
it's still frustrating as i'd like my stuff back, but at least i can get a replacement so he'll let me know if i will get it back or not. it's not critical right now, so i'll prolly wait a little while (next weekend) to pick up a replacement.
i wonder if i can get just a drill and battery set, or if i can only get the combo set that has all kinds of bits that go with it. i'll have to check...
so that's the bad news - i had my drill battery and charger swiped. the good news, KO is really cool and offered to pay for a replacement.
i like my landlords.
hadn't seen that one before
driving into work this morning (best commute i've had all week) i saw a panel truck that had rolling billboards on each flat surface. having your standard billboard that rolls to the next advertisement every 20 seconds (generally a set of 3 as the roller things are generally triangular) or so isn't anything new. i remember seeing the one on 128 for the first time some years ago and thinking that it was an interesting idea, and now they seem to be slowly replacing the traditional 1 panel billboard.
as advertising as become more important to our society, the next logical step was the billboard trucks that are basically nothing more than rolling billboards. you pay, and someone just drives around wherever you want the ad to be shown. (generally in cities, adding to the usual city traffic congestion)
now, someone came up with taking the idea one step further with the rolling billboard on the panel truck. it was for some IT service thing, and only scrolled back and forth between 2 panels (front above the cab, side and back were all different, so at least 8 sets of ads), but i thought it was an interesting idea. the panels stick out ~3-4" from each side, so the truck looks slightly larger. something different. i expect we'll start to see it more often, but it's the first i've seen around here.
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
today turned into one of those days....
today was a laptop day for me. it's all i really worked on much to my irritation. i like this not having to deal with them fulltime thing, but when i walked in and DM (who really REALLY needs to wear a bra more often than she does) pestered me about the lack of loaner laptops. (combo of broken laptops and people keeping them longer than they should be, more that than broken ones)
DH asked me what was going on and i told him what i knew, and mentioned that the managers seem to have this fetish for signing them out and then not returning them. (i think it's a status thing.) then there is a nurse who had a laptop, but she wasn't working enuff, so it was taken away. so she just signs the LT out and never returns it. brings it in for updates and then signs out another one.
anyways, i said that i'd see about getting some ready and set to my task. CC calls to let me know his car won't start and may not make it into work (DH doesn't take to that news particularly well). as he was sposed to be in SW, it didn't affect me a whole lot and i begin the process. then shortly before 2pm, i'm informed that someone has to bring the LTs to SW. a few mins later, i'm informed that i have to bring them to SW. my mood goes from frustrated to irritated anger, and from that point on, i was pretty pissed. and it didn't help that the laptops were still an hour away from being ready to go.
so, as things finished, i stewed in my anger, and rushed to get them done, hoping that i wouldn't fuck things up, because right now, things are really easy to fuck up. when they were done, i rushed to get things put together for them, grabbed my stuff and pretty much stormed out of the office. didn't say bye to anyone, other than to remind CC (who made it in at lunchtime) to make sure things were locked up when he left.
my biggest concern about getting to SW was the traffic. heading over there in the late afternoon is never good, but i managed to get the tail end of halfway decent traffic. i left around 320 and got there pretty much at 4pm. the only real slow spot is a really shitty few turns, but other than that, i beat traffic. i went flying into the office, dropped the laptops off and brought the black box (used to transport laptops between the offices) to KM (the SW receptionist, see previous entry, very cool person) who was getting ready to leave and asked what she wanted me to do with the case. she took it from me, and i flew out of the office. on my way back, going into boston was ok, but had i been heading to the office any later than i had, i would have been screwed and i would have been really pissed.
fortunately, going against the major flow of traffic worked in my favor and i was able to get onto 93 at pretty much the time i would have had i not been screwed into going to SW. it was heavy in spots, but about what i've come to expect for 430 in the afternoon.
i'm doing better now, but my bloodpressure is still elevated, but it's at least less than it was this afternoon. hopefully a good workout tomorrow morning will reallign my chakras and i'll be my normal pissy self.
forgot to pick up gatorade so i headed to wallyworld and bought a large vat of the mix (for twice the price of the 2 gallon size, i get the 6 gallon size, good deal i thought). when i got back to my car, some asshole in a van parked a little too close to me, so it was hard to get into my car. usual case of some fuckwad parking their big ass fucking van (or hummer/expedition/suburban) in a parking space that is way to small for them. i really wish i had those mickey cards printed out....
the only GOOD thing about the day was i got to listen to some classic (if one can call it that) IDM which i hadn't listened to in a while. it was quite nice. started with a little Decoder, followed by some Tyranny (For You), and finally, a little Tactical Neural Implant. i'll have to see what else i can listen to, but it was really nice to give those a spin. it's been a while since i've listened to some of it, and both Tyranny (especially) and TNI are near the core of my musical schism in 1990.
as if anyone cares, these 5 (no particular order) are probably the ultimate core of the schism:
- Front 242 - Tyranny (For You)
- Ministry - A Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste
- Erasure - Wild!
- Depeche Mode - People Are People
- Nitzer Ebb - Showtime
it's well past my bedtime. so i'll end with a quote:
"thank you, thank you, thank you and FUCK YOU!"
-denis leary Read More......
receptionists...
we are lucky here at work as we have a pair of VERY cool receptionists, and i am fortunate that i am in both of their good graces. this has worked well for me as i was overhead paged by LP (our MN receptionist) and when i called her, she informed that trainwreck wanted to speak to me. i groaned, she laughed and i replied that i'm kinda busy.
so she asked me if i wanted her to tell trainwreck that i was in a meeting. sure i reply. okbye.
as i'm walking back to my desk, i hear my phone ringing and see the caller ID and push the 'To VM' button.
i now have a 42 second message from trainwreck i have no intention of listening to in the next few minutes, but all i can say is this -
our receptionists rule.
Sunday, October 16, 2005
Cloudless everyday you fall upon my waking eyes
Inviting and inciting me to rise
And through the window in the wall
Comes streaming in on sunlight wings
A million bright ambassadors of morning
Saturday, October 15, 2005
breakin' for the pontif
coming home this afternoon, NPR mentioned something about breakdancing, and i commented to M that whenever i hear the word/term 'breakdancing', all i can think of is the breakdancers showing their wares to pope john paul
M then commented that she doesn't particularly like pope benedict (wow, that's an evil looking picture). she then tried to find the reason and i offered that he's not cuddly. YES! pope john paul had a grandfatherly quality to him that pope benny doesn't have. he looks like he is always stern and cross with people, which certainly doesn't make him look lovable and cuddly.
maybe i'll just start calling him pope evil.
popevil?
popeil?
hmmm...ronco running the catholic church...no more church socials, and only if the food is made in a ronco product. flavor injected by the solid favor injector. roasted in the showtime rotisserie. pasta in the popeil pasta maker. fish cause by the pocket fisherman (give a man a fish, he eats for a day. teach a man to fish, he eats for a lifetime).
that has to be it - pope benny is a schill for ronco! catholics are now under the control of ronco!
Friday, October 14, 2005
where's my fucking gun?
nowadays, you need a gun, all the time. fucking bunch of shit.
-Lemmy, the Taxi Driver (Hardware)
this lack of sun thing
this lack of sun thing
for more than a week now, the entire new england region has not seen the sun. our dear friend Sol. it's been nothing but grey and rainy and it is nothing short of depressing. the only thing that is anywhere remotely positive about this is that it hasn't been snow. i wonder what the ratio of snow to rainfall is.
(ah, weather - hmmm...woostah has had 7.02" of rain so far, making it the 8th rainiest for them.
sun?
SUN.
SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
we may actually see some of Sol on saturday or sunday...
hole. E. shit)
anyways, you know it's bad when even your dreams are feeling heavy and depressed. i very rarely remember anything about my dreams, but i'll remember feelings or senses, and when i woke up, the feeling was very heavy and dragging. of course, i open my curtains and it's still dark out.
and grey.
Thursday, October 13, 2005
ugh...
today was a rough (sandpaper) day. it started out ok. made it into the gym (what's a gime?), had a decent workout (not as good as the one i had the other day, but still good) and even after leaving for work a little later than planned, the commute in was ok.
then hell broke loose (doh). i didn't have my laptop set up when DH logged me into (bastard!) the help desk (managerial disression, but please, let take a few mins to get settled (who the fuck do you think you are????)). from that point on, the phone pretty much didn't stop ringing (*ring*ring*ring*). and when it did stop (no, go!), network issues started cropping (corn is a crop) up and rather than working on fixing a problem with the new laptop image (kodak), i spent just about the entire afternoon rebooting (kick/kill/kill/kill, YOU WILL NOT KILL! i want peace. you want peace. i can't hear you! aaaaaaahhhhh fuck) servers. including one that took the entire network down (the rabbit hole) (that was deliberate because BK looked at an error a (L)user got and the first words out of his mouth were we had to re(hiking)boot our primary S(imple)Q(uery)L(izard) server. down goes the network. HA!)
we ended the day with me staying an hour later (jackass) than planned (doing some clean up to deal with license issues) and me mildly nervous that a service was restarted on a server that is rather unstable (down down down down, i could not lose it, i could not lose it, i coulda gone no where, down down down down! name that tune!) with the service running. but the day was pretty much done so if things (take a) dump, oh well. (HA!)
needle(syringe)ss to say, it's been a very long we(a)ek. not too much good i suppose either.
TK loaned me (dude) some more Rez which made me happy. unhappy that i was nearly able to listen to The King and Eye from start to finish (19 of 21 tracks). i spose it was better than the day it took me 85 mins to get to work followed the next day where it took me 75 mins. the commute lately has pretty much suck(sucksucksuck)ed, altho today was much better (ez-cheeze) than normal. even the drive home was pretty good with the usual slowdowns, but all in all, it's been the best non-holiday commute i've had in a while. (monday had no traffic which rocked)
so here i sit (so broken hearted, came to shit and only farted) tired looking forward to going to (4 poster) bed. waiting for a file to decompress so i can see about cutting (with razors) into pieces. me like killing joke.
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Monday, October 10, 2005
columbus day...
doug the traffic guy for fox25 asked the cast and crew if they knew who signed the bill that made columbus day for october 12th. no one knew (turned out it is FDR) and then he asked who changed it from the 12th (as today is the 10th) which will be the question for the next traffic update.
so i look it up and one of the first links i find on the subject has the following:
Second Monday in October
1792 a ceremony organized by the Society of St. Tammany, or Colombian Order was held in New York City honoring Columbus and the 300th anniversary of the landing.
Oct. 12 1866 out of the pride for their native son, the Italian population of New York organized the first celebration of the discovery of America.
1869 when Italians in San Francisco celebrated Oct. 12 they called it Columbus Day.
1892 President Benjamin Harrison proclaimed the 400th anniversary of the event.
1905 Colorado became the first state to observe a Columbus Day.
Since 1920 the day has been celebrated annually.
1937 President Franklin Roosevelt proclaimed every Oct. 12 as Columbus Day.
1968 President Johnson declared it a federal public holiday on the 2nd Mon. in Oct.
Historically, Columbus was not the first to discover America, nor was he the first European to land at America. He was the first to exploit, kill, and enslave the Arawak Indians of Haiti.
The myth of Christopher Columbus and the discovery of America is due to Washington Irving. His "biography" of Columbus was popularized in a dramatic and embellished account.
In recent years, the holiday has been rejected by many people who view it as a celebration of conquest and genocide. In its place, Indigenous Peoples Day is celebrated.
aren't we so proud?
Sunday, October 09, 2005
quote of the day
"He's someone in my grade school we would call a twit, and he's someone in my high school we would call a twit." -Kurt Vonnegut (on Now on PBS in reference to the Monkey Fuhrer)
Read More......Friday, October 07, 2005
an unpopular opinion i'm sure (with red sox fans)
i'm a red sox fan. been one for as long as i can remember, but what i'm about to say i'm sure will be controversial, but i don't care.
i am GLAD we didn't win.
i love the red sox. but we didn't deserve to go back to the world series this year. last year, absolutely. there was a fire in the eyes of the entire roster. this year, were we a good team? absolutely. did we have that fire in our eyes?
no.
and that's why we didn't win today. that's why the chicago white sox are going onto fight for a place in the world series. good luck to them.
it really isn't a "world" series, but we like to think of it as such as we (the collective "we" of the united states) like to think that we are the center of the universe, so we are I-D-10-T's (yes, we are).
but anyways, i'm glad. did we deserve to win the 'world' series last year? yes.
did we deserve a place in the playoffs this year? not really. i'm glad we made it, but i'm more glad we lost. i know that 'loyal' red sox fans would disagree with me, but face the fact people - the 2005 red sox were a good team yes, but we didn't deserve to go any further than we did.
next year, the fire should be back. and like the patriots, i wouldn't be suprised if we win the next 2 (for the record, CH said it before i did, but i completely agree with his opinion) world series.
as the red sox season is over, all i can say is this:
GO BRUINS!
Thursday, October 06, 2005
cars
i was on my way home yesterday when i had a thought. shocking i know, but sometimes i do have thoughts.
anyways, all of the cars i have owned (all 2 of them) have been used. nothing wrong with that. the cherokee was given to me from the rens, and i bought my explorer (~6 months before i wanted to, but that's a story for another day) used (had 34,895 miles on it, and as you can see in this post, i've managed to hold onto it for a little while).
but i noticed something that struck me funny. when we buy a used car, it's generally because we can't afford a new car, don't want to pay the premium of a new car, we want a 2nd car, or buying it for a child to drive. (unless you are one of those snot-nosed rich fucks on mtv celebrating their 16th birthday who get cars that are way more powerful than they know how to handle. my 16th birthday looked nothing like that....) but i started thinking about what we expect in a used car.
when i think about a 'used car', i think of something affordable, your typical SUV (explorer, cherokee), a compact car, a camry or maxima. something i think most people would consider to be your 'typical' used car. yesterday, i saw someone driving a 98 Mercedes ML320. and on the rear gate, was a sticker that indicated that it was a used car. it wasn't a huge sticker, but the sticker got me thinking.
if you are going to spend the money to buy a used Mercedes, it isn't exactly something that i would want to advertise as 'used'. i realize that if you see one of the older boxy Mercs on the road, it's probably used. but once they changed the styling to a more rounded shape, it seemed to me that they boosted their image and anyone driving it, could afford it. new or used, didn't matter, but i never saw a sticker on one that indicated that it was 'used'.
so when i saw the sticker last night, it struck me funny, because if i were to buy a used mercedes, the first thing i would do would be remove any kind of indication that it was used. i want people thinking i bought it new. but instead, the person who bought this ML320, my immediate reaction (judging is a bad thing, i know) was that they couldn't afford a new one, but were trying to make it look as tho they could.
granted, i'm sure a used ML320 costs a pretty penny (more than i'd want to pay), but leaving that sticker on makes me think of them as a wanna-be Mercedes owner. well off enuff to buy one, but dumb enuff to leave the glaring fact that they couldn't afford a new one.
my next car? most likely will be new, smaller and a lot more fuel efficient than my current one.
maybe i really am becoming a hypocritical snob...
fuck it. i like how i view the world, with sick, twisted and distorted eyes....
Sunday, October 02, 2005
doh
the good news is the dvd burned fine.
the bad news is i completely forgot that video dvds have a particular file structure and i don't have the video_ts folder.
doh.
at least i have the files, and i can fix this error on monday. stupit dvd file structure formatting.
sometimes
work really sucks. there is an upside to being on call - i get paid for the hours i carry the pager. and for the most part, it's pretty quiet, altho today i had a few, including 1 bright and early.
but being the responsible person i am, i wanted to check something to see if it was still having problems or not, and fortunately, what i was checking, was ok.
UNFORTUNATELY i discovered not 1, but 2 separate problems, so i decided that i'd come into the office and be the responsible server admin i am (and would like to be) and dealt with the issues directly. i could have done some of it from home, but when i couldn't connect to our exchange box, it made more sense for me to come in now, while i can deal with it quietly, rather than get paged at 6am and have a user complain they can't check their mail. cuz then i'd have to check things and i'd end up driving in here anyways.
so, here i am, but i'm done with what i came in for. as an added bonus, i am able to actually burn a dvd i was figuring i'd have to wait until monday to do, so i'm rather pleased about that. we'll see if this works. i know the dvd i'm burning to will work in my player, but i'm not sure about the particular burner. (that whole dvd format arguement that never seems to be settled thing)
so it it currently 67% done, up from ~30% when i start typing this, so in the next 5-6 mins or so, i should be taking it out of the drive and packing things up to go home.
at which point i'll promptly pop the dvd in to see if it works. i'll be quite happy if it does. it's not often one gets the opportunity to see a great band, and this is the opportunity i was forced (due to lack-of-job) to miss. something i don't plan on screwing up the next time Tool tours...
and before anyone gets their panties or boxers in a bunch understand the following: i will not sell this. i will share it with those who ask politely. and i own every major Tool release (including the first editions of Lateralus and Salival that contain the typos. i bought them new. on the day they came out. not on ebay). i own every major Perfect Circle release. and i wait with baited breath, the next Tool album(s).
i always wonder about that disclaimer, but i feel as tho i should put it up there. i'm a big fan of live music, and my bootleg collection is fairly extensive for the bands i really like. (Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Tool, etc) i don't do it for profit, and i've never (nor will i ever) sell any of it for money. i've bought my share of bootlegs over the years and i share them freely with friends. it's a hobby. nothing more than that. some people collect pins or shot glasses. i collect live music. and finding a new show (like the recently released Zep show in Montreux 1971) is cool as hell.
so anyways, it's nearing completion now. i hadn't realized that this burner seems to queue things up before it actually writes the disc. so it is now 42% done. another 5 mins. ho hum. twiddle twiddle twiddle.
the gym continues to be a good thing for me. the same day M&i had our crappy Cheesecake Factory experience, i bought a shirt i've been watching at Banana Republic. quite nice, and in the clearance section. for a while, it was on sale for $35 (down from $60), but it finally dropped again and was $20.99. a little more than i'd like, but i really like the color (nice deep purple) and supplies were beginning to thin in my size. so after trying it on over a semi-bulky tshirt, i bought it and at home, tried it on w/o the tshirt and to my suprise and delight, it fit reasonably well, but more importantly, i discovered that some jackets i have which were a little tight on me were now actually semi-comfortable and actually fit. it was a very nice suprise as i hadn't been checking to see how my progress was. weightwise, i've only dropped a few pounds (3-4, which for a month is healthy) but more importantly, the fat stores seem to be going away. which means 2 things - 1) i have been losing weight, more than the scale is showing and 2) for the moment, it seems as tho i'm gaining muscle in a near 1 to 1 ratio or losing fat (eg: lose 1 lb fat, gain 1 lb muscle). i realize that will stop, but for just over 3 weeks (now a month), that's pretty good.
so it really is true - watch what you eat (cut back on portion size, minimize sugar/sweets intake, etc) and when combined with exercise, you really will be better off. i'm certainly pleased with the results, and that's just going every other day. it's a little hard waking up in the morning (6am for me is hard) but i'm getting used to it and it's actually harder for me to stay up this late now. (FINALLY the disc is done)
well, i'm tired, and it really is way past my bedtime so i'm going to grab my dvd, close up and head home.
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