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...
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