8/29/2002
KSDT In The News
KSDT, the college radio station I used to run, was in a Wired News article today. They interviewed Rishi Shah, who just replaced me as General Manager.
Two thoughts:
1.) I was never any good at drumming up this sort of publicity for station issues, which is a pretty important part of the job. Publicity is dumb. Go Rishi!
2.) I also never had to deal with these damn RIAA streaming audio issues, thank God. The internet broadcasting business (even at the college level, where we get about 12 max simultaneous users) just became an incredible pain in the ass. Again, here’s hoping Rishi can make some sense of all this, because I sure can’t.
I am totally hoping that the entire recording industry goes out of business next week, and then gets rebuilt from the ground up so that it isn’t so lame.
Apple Newton Revisited
Slashdot links to a pretty interesting article about Apple’s old Newton PDA. Apparently, the Newton has been embraced and heavily supported by the open source community.
I had actually completely forgotten about the Newton. What is my problem that I read an article like this and immediately want to get my hands on one of these (I’m not even exactly sure what I want it for)? This and an NES Power Glove. And maybe R.O.B. for good measure…
I need serious help.
Foreign Spam
Normally I dislike spam, but I enjoyed this:
To: "嘉文"<嘉文@mso-net.net>Subject: 男 性熱門話 題
What are those things… eggs, or candy, or ? Hopefully someone (perhaps 嘉文, if he/she/it is reading) can shed some light on this subject.
8/28/2002
Bad Driver in the House
or, rather, on the street outside.
There’s a dojo somewhere in the strip mall across the alley from our place. I don’t know exactly where, but if I’m hanging out in my front yard at the right time of day I see lots of young men in pajamas and brightly colored sashes walking by my place–on their way to class, no doubt.
Three times over the last couple of weeks, I’ve also seen a minivan that seems to have some connection to the dojo as well. This is notable because the driver of this vehicle has got to be one of the worst drivers I’ve ever seen.
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8/27/2002
VW Is Bringing Back The Microbus
CNN has an article about Volkswagen’s plans to reintroduce the Microbus in 2005.
I suppose this is kind of cool from a nouveau hippie standpoint, but I have to say that the original 50’s and 60’s microbuses kind of freaked me out - with that huge bulge in the floor for the engine, and the clever plan of using the driver and passengers as crumple zones in the event of an accident. The article doesn’t mention those features specifically, so I’d imagine they’ve been fixed.
On another, brief, note, I’ve ridden around in Eurovans a couple of times, and they are insane. For some reason, I do have a bit of nostalgia for those Vanagons in the 80’s, but I understand they sucked. I wonder when VW is going to get this right…
8/26/2002
Player Strike
Grrrr…
It doesn’t matter that the average player salary is two million dollars. The issue is, the owners want to place external restrictions (via a luxury tax) on salaries–an artificial salary restriction. Meanwhile, the fact that the players can’t sign a contract or get paid a red cent without a team owner’s John Hancock seems to be escaping the attention of most Americans. Players can’t hold a gun to a general manager’s head to get a contract. It must be offered. If a team is offering contracts that they can’t hope to turn into profits (like the Pirates, Devil Rays, and Royals) because they can’t recognize a bad deal when they propose one, why shouldn’t they suffer?
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8/25/2002
Simpsons Marathon
There’s a rad Simpsons marathon on TV today (something like 7 hours of Simpsons). I’ve been watching for about two hours without having seen a repeat yet.
It’s been a pretty good Sunday so far.
Thought For The Day
Over the past couple of days, I have basically become addicted to Kelloggs Frosted Mini Wheats. Since it’s nearly pure wheat (well, wheat and sugar), I figure that there isn’t much too much that can go wrong. I’ve eaten nearly three boxes in the past three days, just popping them like popcorn.
To make a long story short: friends, there is such a thing as too much fiber…
8/23/2002
Neverwinter Nights
I finally installed Neverwinter Nights, Deb’s birthday present, and have been playing it over the last few days. Since everyone with an ounce of sense in their heads got tired of Diablo II, we’ve been looking for a multiplayer game that we could play over the net in similar fashion. Is NWN it?
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Shaq says he wasn’t hosting Florida kids camp
I enjoyed this article. Here’s a priceless quote:
“People know when I do an event it’s done right,'’ O’Neal told Fox Sports Net on Thursday.
Sure, Shaq. You’re a veritable Seal of Quality. Uh, except we’ll have to include a disclaimer that event cannot be construed to mean “motion picture”, “rap album”, or “free throw”.
Cat Killer Acquitted
Interesting article in CNN. A landlord killed two cats belonging to a tenant by blowing them away with a shotgun. He was convicted of destroying her property, but the courts decided that death by shotgun isn’t particularly cruel (since farmers use shotguns all the time to off pigs and stuff), and therefore acquitted him on the cruelty to animals charge.
I’m not sure that I have a problem with any of this, but it is kind of strange to not regard blowing away two cats as being cruel.
My favorite line from the article:
“A judge ruled that Eric Grossnickle destroyed the cats in a legally acceptable manner when he blasted them with a 12-gauge shotgun.”
Tron
If I could write a subtitle on here it would read as such: “The Most Dudicallist Movie Ever. And The Most Rad Too.”
So anyway, I have been Tron retentive for a couple of years now. It all started about the same time as I switched to my VisArts major, and one day when were sitting in our retarded Photoshop class (”This week: exploring the pixel…”) I started kind of pondering what would be involved with producing the goofy light effects in Tron using a series of Photoshop filters.
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8/21/2002
Signs
Dan and Deb and I caught Signs, an M. Night Shyamalamalaman film, a week or two ago. Read on for a refreshingly spoiler-free review.
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I got new shoes
Phet and I went shopping a couple of days ago, and I bought a couple new pairs of shoes. I had heard that there was a new trend towards vintage shoes, and was kind of interested to check them out (I’ve always kind of felt like my feet hailed from a simpler time). Previous to this purchase, I had been wearing my racquetball shoes everywhere, and let’s be honest: plain white Reeboks do not complement my colorful personality (which actually was described as outright “flamboyant” by a past employer).
No sir, I need some shoes with some pep, with a little bit of moxie. Something snazzy…
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8/18/2002
Lawnmower Man
I bought a lawn mower last weekend. I’ve never owned a lawn mower before, and it’s funny how old I felt when I thought about the situation.
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8/17/2002
Roy Orbison Show on PBS
There’s a really cool Roy Orbison concert special on PBS right now. It’s cool because Bruce Springsteen and Elvis Costello are the rhythm guitarists and Bonnie Raitt and KD Lang (I think) are among the backup singers. And It’s not really like “Roy Orbison and friends” or anything so much as it’s just Roy Orbison with a famous backup band.
On a related note, this is sort of my idea of what heaven would be like…
Holy God
This is probably highly inapproriate blog behavior, but I just noticed that some random guy named Dennis stumbled onto my entry on OJs cereal and left a comment.
God bless this “internet”. No longer will the masses want for a popular OJ’s forum… 
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TV Shows
It’s summer, so I’ve been watching a lot of TV. Here are some thoughts on a couple of noteworthy shows.
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Spirited Away
Phet pirated a copy of Spirited Away, the upcoming movie by the guy who made Princess Mononoke (apparently it’s in the process of being dubbed for the US by Dreamworks). Phet managed to get a subtitled copy via KaZaa, and we watched it on our TV using MuzakBox. Take that, evil corporations/artists.
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8/15/2002
I got some bad Coke…
I was just kind of hanging out today, being cool, when I decided to go to Carl’s Jr for a delicious Six Dollar Burger. So I pull into the drive through, order the Large size #11 combo meal (because… I’m worth it), and then go about the rest of my business. Thing was, when I go to take a drink from my 94 oz. Bladder Blaster-size Coke, my eager tastebuds were greeted with what tasted like carbonated rat bile.
Once again, the good people of fast food had cooked my drink wrong. And now, I’m mad as all heckfire.
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8/12/2002
Yet Another MP3 Computer
I’ve constructed yet another MP3 stereo component deal out of yet another computer (here’s a previous version). It has a lot of dubiously useful, although undeniably sexy, features. It is still in its larval stages, but I though I’d post some stuff on the design. And stuff.
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That Wacky Shlonglor
September 1, 2006 Update: Attention Shlonglor readers: FU. Have a nice day.
Okay, okay. I vowed never to mention Shlonglor on this website (suffice it to say that I think he’s kind of a drip), but his recent antics are just too funny. Apparently, he has started something of a feud with a Warcraft 3 “clan” called Incinerate or something (it is unclear if War3 clans are somehow related to the Ku Klux Klan, or merely trying to horn in on the Klan’s good publicity.) The IN Clan has a sort of War3 community page where the Grand Wizard, Incinerate was preaching the gospel of Perfect Play, which is the philosophy that if you play perfectly, you won’t ever lose. Shlonglor then latched on to this philosophy as being flawed and incredibly “gay”. A very protracted webpage battle (and hilarity) has ensued.
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8/10/2002
Riotous!
I don’t want to get into the question of whether I’m the best employee in the world or whether my boss is the best boss in the world, but he handed me a brand new Rio Riot this week. He won it at DAC and thinks I’ll get more use out of it than him. Of course, he’s right.
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8/9/2002
Wish I Had a Ghetto Name
Chris Terry, some guy from the Carolina Panthers, had a restraining order slapped on his ass yesterday. It seems that Terry had been pushing his wife NyQuell Jackson-Terry around a little bit.
NyQuell? Jesus, that’s almost as cool of a name as Sirmarcus. Wonder what Jackson-Terry’s siblings names are… Pepto B. Jackson? Mylanta Jackson? Preparation H. Jackson?
Here’s the article [ESPN.com]
8/8/2002
Sexual Predator Serenaded at Courthouse
Schlock-pop superstar R. Kelly, who is facing multiple counts of underage, nubile, jail-bait love, was surrounded by slavering fans as he entered the courthouse yesterday, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
Is there something wrong with the water in Chicago?
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Saddam Hussein Speaks
CNN Article. I have to say that the man looks pretty good in a suit. Kind of like a filthy, murderous Capt. Mike Ambrose… (photos below)
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Win XP for Cheap
Microsoft is selling Win XP Pro for $39 plus shipping, and it comes with a bunch of other crap (a baseball, a bobble head dude, bubble gum, etc.) You might want to take advantage of this offer to legalize your Win XP status if that’s the OS you use.
You need to sign up for a .net passport thingy and say you work with a company, but you can make the company up if you want.
They had this deal back in May, only it came with different stuff–a Win XP Lava Lamp, for one. I shoulda bought it then, because I’m a sucker for lava lamps. Oh well, I’m a sucker for bobble head figures too, and I’ll be getting one of those.
8/7/2002
It Was Really Pretty Out Today
It takes me an hour and forty five minutes to get home from UCSD, since I’ve been taking the shuttle to Hillcrest Medical Center and walking home from there. I generally don’t really mind the commute since it gives me precious “me” time, but I have to say that I actually enjoyed it a lot today, since the weather was so nice.
Plus, I bought a Strawberry Cheesecake ice cream cone from Baskin-Robbins on the way home, which means I pretty much obliterated any health advantages of the walk, which I am actually a big fan of.
Hey, I just thought of a cool slogan! “Fitness Is Witless!” Shit, yeah! I still got it!
Westerfield Case
The closing arguments have almost finished. I hope that none of the jurors are huge fans of JesusH (I’m sure David Westerfield probably was), because I want to talk about it a bit.
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What the frig?
What is up with the new background? It looks like the inside of my nose!