Monday, April 17, 2006
GAH!
i fucking HATE when i see something that reminds me to look up something and then i immediately forget what it was i wanted to look at.
fuck fuck fuck a duck...
Saturday, April 15, 2006
ohboyohboyohboyohboy....
i just listened (and am continuing to listen) to Vicarious (first single off of 10,000 Days). it's going to be hitting the radio on monday, but as i never really listen to the radio for anything other than NPR, i wanted to hear it. and i like it. a lot. i really like it. really really. i can't even really describe it other than to say that it's beautiful.
i had no ideas of what to expect for this album and the only thing i heard was a brief review of the album as heard by a small group of people (DJ's, press) in australia and the album was described as being 'heavy'
if this is the start, there is no question that this will be a continuing evolution, picking up right where Lateralus ended and mutating into something more.
May 2nd seems like a long way away....
TK - zombie and vampires are mentioned.
Eva - HHH may be god, but MJK IS G-O-D.
Friday, April 14, 2006
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
yay.
just filed my taxes. i didn't have to get things filed until next monday or so (tuesday i believe as monday is a state holiday) but it's done.
the good news:
uncle romney owes me money.
the bad news:
i owed uncle sam money. (i believe i groused about this back in late january/early february)
the better news:
uncle romney owed me more than i owed uncle sam so i come out a little ahead.
woo.
Friday, April 07, 2006
from the 'oh brother' files:
microsoft is being sued by lucent and lucent wants microsoft to recall every xbox360.
yeah.
right.
i wouldn't be suprised if microsoft just decides to buy lucent just to shut them up.
Monday, April 03, 2006
there's someone in my head and it's not me
wow
somewhere along the lines of 16-17 years ago, i laid my hands on something i have yet to see again. i remember it vividly, rifling thru the used LP bin at a music store on Central Ave. in Albany. at the time, i was starting to get really heavy into Pink Floyd and wanted to get some of the records because i understood what they would ultimately mean to me, even back then.
so here i am, looking thru the Pink Floyd section when i come across a copy of Dark Side of the Moon. it took me a moment to understand why they wanted $25 for it as the copy in front of it was considerably less ($5-7 most likely). then i noticted the little bright pink sticker stuck onto the plastic that had a profound little handwritten phrase on it.
QUAD VERSION
i suddenly realized what i was holding in my hand. and at that very same moment realized with much dispair, i didn't have $25 or a record player plugged into a system that could play in Quadraphonic. but i wanted it anyways, because it was an important recording.
the basic idea of quadraphonic recordings was that you had sound coming from 4 distinct speakers - left front, left rear, right front, right rear. and back before the advent of dolby surround sound systems (dts, etc), this was the only way to hear something with more than 2 channels. it came out in the early 1970's, but never caught on, i think primarily to the need to buying a 2nd amplifier that would be hooked up to the rear speakers, so it was too expensive for most people. Pink Floyd was one of the few bands that attempted to take advantage of this, and while touring, were one of the only bands that actually employed a quadraphonic sound system with their live shows. i've read plenty of reviews of shows where people were amazed at how the cash registers at the beginning of Money sounded like they were coming from all over the place. Only 3 Pink Floyd albums were ever released in quad format -
Atom Heart Mother
Dark Side of the Moon
Wish You Were Here
i think i've managed to actually touch all 3 at one point in time or another, but was Dark Side of the Moon that left the lasting impression. (all were more than i could afford at the time)
so, here we are, 16+ years later and i have my hands on the quad version of Dark Side of the Moon. thanks to the modern technology of DVDs, a halfway decent dolby surround amplifier and the internet, i have it. and for the first time in a few years, i've actually listened to the studio version of Dark Side of the Moon. and all i can say is wow. i know in 2003 for the 30th anniversary, an SACD version was released that had a redone 5.1 version, but i don't have a cd player that plays SACDs, so i can't hear it. (that was probably the last time i listened to studio version of Dark Side of the Moon)
so, with eyes closed, volume up, i listened to a version of Dark Side of the Moon that most people have never heard before. and it was wow. i won't bother to try and review it other than to say i heard things that i hadn't heard before and that it was really fucking cool.
really fucking cool.
many years ago, Alan Parsons was the person responsible for engineering the quad version of Dark Side of the Moon, and in 1975, he wrote an article for Studio Sound magazine which is pretty cool talking a bit about it and the challenges of bringing it to life in concert. well worth a read.
and this was well worth a listen. Us and Them has never been a favorite song of mine, but i enjoyed it in full glorious quad...
Sunday, April 02, 2006
work continues to be busy. but i managed not to electrocute myself on friday afternoon, so that's a good thing. i was 'asked' to replace the batteries in one of our failed UPS (backup power thingie) and it took some time. i've learned that if you let the dead batteries sit for a little while, they get pregnant and don't want to come out nicely. so it took me a little while and some help to pull the fool thing apart (all the while expecting to be electrocuted, sure it was unplugged, but dealing with these things is a little nerve-wracking). fortunately, everything plugged in and i put it back together w/o blowing it up or electrocuting myself. and i even managed to plug a few servers back into it.
now i get to do this 3 more times, and 2 of them are prolly in similar shape and will require me to pull them apart. blech...i'll have to charge my drill so i can use that to unscrew them.
weather has been nice the last few days. a little bit of rain yesterday, but that was ok. we needed it. got to see 2 rainbows which was cool. one was really bright, the other not so bright. all the colors by the ground were really vivid which made it purdy. was F's bday so M&i took her out to dinner. she saw some place on 18 that she wanted to try so that's where we went. it wasn't bad, walking in it reminded me of one of those old style italian restaurants that has a layer of smoke hanging in the air (which this prolly would have had we allowed smoking in restaurants and bars)
the food wasn't too bad, altho dessert could have been a little better. it was fun and we had a good time. tho my seat on the bench was kinda broken, so trying to sit and keep my balance was a little difficult. the fried calimari was quite tasty, and not overcooked. i had pork, M went with the veal and F went for the lamb. she ordered the dish i was going to order, so i went with a 2nd choice. not bad all around. and we all discovered that we don't care for mint jelly. i've never been a big mint person (changed a little recently) but we all tried it and it was waaaaaaay to spearamint bubblegum flavor.
went to my cousin's wedding last weekend w/M. all in all it was a nice trip and it was cool to see my family. the reception was interesting because apparently there is something that says you can't serve alcohol with the meal (not sure if it was a country club rule, or a bumblefuck county rule (either is possible - the joys of living near the mason-dixon line i guess). in any event, i went into the reception with a near empty wine glass figuring that i didn't need to refill before going in. well, you could go in w/booze, but some of my cousin's managed to raise a bit of a stink over it. it was fun to watch.
well, i'll drop my train of thought here. i'm actually tired so i'm thinking i'll crawl into bed to see if i can't make up for this spring forward thing.
me tired....
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
no more Caspar...
normally i don't care about someone political that dies, but i'll make an exception in this case. i remember reading this strip in the book (didn't see it originally published) and finding it funny, so when i saw that Caspar had died, i figured this was fitting.
i'll swipe Caspar's response from here (which was copied out of the "One Last Peek")
The strip elicited the following response on official stationery from the Department of Defense:
Dear Mr. Breathed,
Many a morn I've longed to see
A comic strip be kind to me.
On 30 March, before my eyes
A penguin watched a warm sunrise.
In this land of so much bouty
Could I have that great Bloom County?
Sincerely,
Caspar Weinberger.
(he was sent the comic)
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
hahahahahahahaha
| Greed: | Very High | |
| Gluttony: | High | |
| Wrath: | Very High | |
| Sloth: | Medium | |
| Envy: | High | |
| Lust: | Medium | |
| Pride: | Very High |
Take the Seven Deadly Sins Quiz Read More......
Sunday, March 19, 2006
well, it's been a little while, but when there's some good news, it tends to inspire me to just run my fingers and let what may spew, actually spew.
i'd like to say that there was a lot of interesting and facinating stuff that happened since i last posted anything substantive, but it really hasn't.
my car passed inspection, altho there is apparently a slight leak in the exhaust system (most likely related to when the hangers broke). i'm going to my cousin's wedding on friday with M (we fly out on thursday). she's the first of the next generation. found out my uncle is getting married in july. fortunately, siblings and immediate children only (huzzah! don't have to go!).
battlestar galactica ended the 2nd season with one hell of a bang. it really is one of the best shows on TV right now. Dr. Who has returned to US televisions. not a big deal if you live in the UK where you are looking forward to the 2nd series, but it's nice to see it. not sure about how it was filmed, and the TARDIS looks a little off, but i enjoyed it. (mom sent a resounding "HE'LL DO!" afterwards)
work is busy as hell, and this weekend was rough. we had a series of network issues that i thought were tied to a switch, but we'll see. there were issues afterwards, but i'm wondering if we should have bounced everything. the phone system flaked out this evening and i got 3 calls before/during dinner tonight that were rough. i bounced all of the phone switches and a few servers after getting home.
some big plans for the network and the nice thing is i'm in the middle of them, but it means a lot work and preparation. i do get to goto training in may, so that will be helpful.
well, my attention is beginning to wander, so i'll just post what little there is here.
Good News Everybody!
hole
ee
shit!
from the mouth of Fry himself
And the other good news is that they're doing 26 new episodes of ''Futurama'' for TV and we're hammering out the deal now.The original plan was to have the DVD's first but that's no longer the case.I'm totaly jammed dude.
Greetings from the year 3000! It still sucks!
Billy
Monday, March 06, 2006
i'm watching 24 right now (the following happens between 5pm and 6pm) and they are looking for (well, just killed) a terrorist in the basement of a hospital and i was reminded of something i think of from time to time.
i really hope that real SWAT team/special forces type people who go into these kinds of situations wear boots that are a LOT more quiet. it always seems to me that when i see stuff like that on tv, you always hear the footsteps of the unit (or person) as they try to quietly creep around.
logic would dictate that if you are trying to quietly sneak around to kill someone/prevent something from happening, wouldn't you want to wear footware that will help disguise your presence?
i certainly would...
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