Wednesday, August 06, 2003
HERE IT IS! LEAKED EPISODE III SCRIPT!
If you really take that seriously I'll beat you, really I will.
If you really take that seriously I'll beat you, really I will.
FACT:
Online piracy crime is erupting like a flaming cancer, spreading its growling, fiery malignancy across the groin of the technology world (a.k.a, the internet) and is suffocating cash-starved entertainers. Rock and roll musician Lars Metallica has gone public saying that illegal downloading has cost him so much money that he has had to lower the quality of his music due to lack of funds.
Online piracy crime is erupting like a flaming cancer, spreading its growling, fiery malignancy across the groin of the technology world (a.k.a, the internet) and is suffocating cash-starved entertainers. Rock and roll musician Lars Metallica has gone public saying that illegal downloading has cost him so much money that he has had to lower the quality of his music due to lack of funds.
Holy crap Jim McGreevey finally did something worthwhile. Watch your asses sleep-deprived drivers. If you get into a sleep or drowsy related accident you could be fined upto $100,000 (froma measley maximum $200) and spend upto 10 years in prison! Finally our retarded governer does something better. Read the article here. At least Christine Todd-Whitman did a good deal of things for this state. The only other thing I like of McGreevey's is his new car inspection policy. If your car is 2000 or later, you only have to get it inspected ever 4 years. Not a bad idea.
Tuesday, August 05, 2003
Monday, August 04, 2003
This was too funny. Anne Coulter has the sharpest political whit I've seen in a long time.
"Another tape-recorded message from Saddam Hussein surfaced this week, making it the third audiotape he has released in the past month. If we're really serious about finding this guy, maybe we should start searching Iraq's recording studios."
"In other terror news, the government issued a warning to the airlines this week about terrorist attacks on commercial aircraft being planned before the end of the summer. Al-Qaida has apparently sized up the new security measures put into place by Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta and has discovered some areas of vulnerability. Among the weaknesses the terrorists hope to exploit is the fact that airlines are prohibited from looking for Arab terrorists."
"Uday Hussein didn't need a phony study to comprehend Bush's lack of "nuance." The London Sunday Telegraph recently reported that, soon after the war began, Uday was deeply depressed. According to the former director of Iraqi television quoted in the Telegraph, the last words he heard Uday speak were these: 'This time I think the Americans are serious. Bush is not like Clinton. I think this is the end.'"
Quite the intelligent women eh? Saw her this past year speak live at our school. One of the best political Q&A sessions I've ever been to. Only wish I had her book then so she could have signed it.
"Another tape-recorded message from Saddam Hussein surfaced this week, making it the third audiotape he has released in the past month. If we're really serious about finding this guy, maybe we should start searching Iraq's recording studios."
"In other terror news, the government issued a warning to the airlines this week about terrorist attacks on commercial aircraft being planned before the end of the summer. Al-Qaida has apparently sized up the new security measures put into place by Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta and has discovered some areas of vulnerability. Among the weaknesses the terrorists hope to exploit is the fact that airlines are prohibited from looking for Arab terrorists."
"Uday Hussein didn't need a phony study to comprehend Bush's lack of "nuance." The London Sunday Telegraph recently reported that, soon after the war began, Uday was deeply depressed. According to the former director of Iraqi television quoted in the Telegraph, the last words he heard Uday speak were these: 'This time I think the Americans are serious. Bush is not like Clinton. I think this is the end.'"
Quite the intelligent women eh? Saw her this past year speak live at our school. One of the best political Q&A sessions I've ever been to. Only wish I had her book then so she could have signed it.
Wow well what a weekend. Got out of work for a half day on Friday, ran home picked up my contacts, finally got in contact with Amar, Matt, and Scott and set out for Atlantic City. That's when we hit the typhoon. Worst traveling weather EVER. Ugh. Brought along the Ipod and it passed the first long term traveling test with flying colors. I just exchanged it yesterday actually as my new one came in 4 days ahead of schedule! Go Apple! Once we got down to AC we met up with Tammy and Lindsey and went out for a walk on the boardwalk. Went to the Hard Rock Cafe there for dinner, pretty awesome since I'd never been to any HRC's up until then. Afterwards we got ready to go out and hit up this bar on the boardwalk. Not bad except for the really drunk in-his-50's guy (who was wearing a fanny-pack) who came up to me and proceeded to:
1.) Give me a hug
2.) Offer me a beer
3.) Inform me that if he was gay I'd be a hot ticket and he'd hit on me
4.) Actually DID hit on me.
Then his friend came over, just as blasted but aware of it at least and a good 20 years younger. Then their hippie chick came over and proceeded to investigate what we were discussing. So now I've got a thirty-something hippie in my arms, a 50 year old man trying to grab my ass, and his younger friend patting me on the shoulder.
Woo....hoo.....
The hippie wouldn't let me go either until I did "peace" to her and we did that whole 60s connect our fingers. I think I know why guys in the 60s never got laid. The women wore some hot clothing, but the men were stuck in the middle of a sexual revolution, at their sexual peak, wearing clothes that guaranteed they weren't going to get laid. To quote Denis Leary (WHOSE ROAST IS ON THIS WEEK!), "I think the qualudes explained why we were wearing the bell bottom pants don't you?"
After finishing up there we went over to the WILD WILD WEST Bally's casino. Fun times. Amar and I dropped about $40 a piece in the slots. Yeah mindless, yeah stupid, yeah we were both $40 poorer. Then I hit up the $5 blackjack tables. Ooohhhh booyah That was fun times up there. Good dealers, good hands, and good profits. Matt made out exceptionally well at the craps table, and Scott after losing a crapload at the roulette table, made out with over $200 of THEIR money. Not bad eh? Tammy broke even, but she's becoming quite the gambler ::wink wink:: so she'll be under in a few days again lol. Next day we drove off to Lindsey's which was really a great end to the weekend. Matt ended up coming to Lindsey's after all and Jesse and Kevin showed up that night as well. It was good to be in the sun and go swimming. The fluorescents are humming angrily at me as a type. They know I was out getting natural light. I'll smash a few of them later when no one's looking.
Matt brought along Dance Dance Revolution, actually all of them. I had never played before because I didn't want to try it at the movies or the arcade and look like an idiot. So I did the training modes and all and got the hang of it really quick. It was really fun and became a highlight of the weekend. You actually had to put yourself in the "queue" to play! Next morning we all were up fairly early and headed off back home. Took a quick nap, headed out to Menlo with Amar, Jesse, and Kevin to pick up my Ipod and see what the Old Navy over there had to offer. Stopped off at Friendly's for dinner, and then straight off to see American Wedding. Not a bad flick, although I wish the few characters they cut out were in there. Chris Klein can go to hell though, I'm glad he was cut out :P Got some sleep, maybe all told about 12 hours the entire weekend...But I couldn't feel better. Really.
Now it's back to my last week of work WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Time to go bring the hurt to the humming lights....
1.) Give me a hug
2.) Offer me a beer
3.) Inform me that if he was gay I'd be a hot ticket and he'd hit on me
4.) Actually DID hit on me.
Then his friend came over, just as blasted but aware of it at least and a good 20 years younger. Then their hippie chick came over and proceeded to investigate what we were discussing. So now I've got a thirty-something hippie in my arms, a 50 year old man trying to grab my ass, and his younger friend patting me on the shoulder.
Woo....hoo.....
The hippie wouldn't let me go either until I did "peace" to her and we did that whole 60s connect our fingers. I think I know why guys in the 60s never got laid. The women wore some hot clothing, but the men were stuck in the middle of a sexual revolution, at their sexual peak, wearing clothes that guaranteed they weren't going to get laid. To quote Denis Leary (WHOSE ROAST IS ON THIS WEEK!), "I think the qualudes explained why we were wearing the bell bottom pants don't you?"
After finishing up there we went over to the WILD WILD WEST Bally's casino. Fun times. Amar and I dropped about $40 a piece in the slots. Yeah mindless, yeah stupid, yeah we were both $40 poorer. Then I hit up the $5 blackjack tables. Ooohhhh booyah That was fun times up there. Good dealers, good hands, and good profits. Matt made out exceptionally well at the craps table, and Scott after losing a crapload at the roulette table, made out with over $200 of THEIR money. Not bad eh? Tammy broke even, but she's becoming quite the gambler ::wink wink:: so she'll be under in a few days again lol. Next day we drove off to Lindsey's which was really a great end to the weekend. Matt ended up coming to Lindsey's after all and Jesse and Kevin showed up that night as well. It was good to be in the sun and go swimming. The fluorescents are humming angrily at me as a type. They know I was out getting natural light. I'll smash a few of them later when no one's looking.
Matt brought along Dance Dance Revolution, actually all of them. I had never played before because I didn't want to try it at the movies or the arcade and look like an idiot. So I did the training modes and all and got the hang of it really quick. It was really fun and became a highlight of the weekend. You actually had to put yourself in the "queue" to play! Next morning we all were up fairly early and headed off back home. Took a quick nap, headed out to Menlo with Amar, Jesse, and Kevin to pick up my Ipod and see what the Old Navy over there had to offer. Stopped off at Friendly's for dinner, and then straight off to see American Wedding. Not a bad flick, although I wish the few characters they cut out were in there. Chris Klein can go to hell though, I'm glad he was cut out :P Got some sleep, maybe all told about 12 hours the entire weekend...But I couldn't feel better. Really.
Now it's back to my last week of work WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Time to go bring the hurt to the humming lights....
Friday, August 01, 2003
"Actually, I think the radio star killed the radio star." Lol this post on IpodLounge cracked me up. Someone had asked if Ipod killed the radio star. As you can tell from previous posts, I think the radio star killed himself too :P Check out IpodLounge if you're interested in getting an Ipod. Definitely the best piece of hardware I've ever bought. I had 2 problems with my last two yes...I'll go into that really briefly.
The first Ipod I dropped, not that hard, but I got an error afterwards which isn't related to that thankfully. It's a folder with an exclamation point in it. This is like a corrupted folder/hard drive etc. It's actually a problem they've been getting. Probably because of the Malaysian made hard disks from Toshiba. When will you use Western Digital! So I returned that one on the 7th to BestBuy. I never bought the service plan they offer either. It's $40 for 2 years. Why should I pay more for that when Apple's warranty is 4 years! So I used my new one for abotu 3-4 weeks this July then 3 days ago the hold button started wackin' out on me. I would turn it off and it would still think it was on. I'd have to fiddle with it a couple times to get it on. I was freakin' out when I was at the diner with Matt and Amar and I tried turning it on and it appeared dead. Now amid all the discussions of battery life for the 3rd gen Ipods, mine had been pretty good on the two I've had. I get upwards of about 6-9 hours and they advertise something like 10. I have kept it not in the charger for 3 days at a time too and had a full charge when waking it up. Yes the Ipod "sleeps" and never is really off. That's how it achieves that kooky instant-on capability. I hadn't had one problem with the 2cd Ipod, but that hold button was annoying. Luckily there were 2 Apple stores somewhat nearby, one in Menlo Park Mall and one in Short Hills Mall. So I went with Matt to Menlo on Tuesday and they were amazing. Best customer service yet, seriously. I'm considering buying an Apple laptop (because I've wanted an Apple system, but not a desktop persay) to start putzing around with since their networking is a close second to Windows NT and 2000 servers. I even got to keep my current Ipod till then, so I'm not without music. And I'll have the new one in time for my LBI vacation! Rock on!
Waiting for Matt to give me a call to see if we're go for Atlantic City. Never been, can't wait to go. Hopefully he can get the money. He got the work coverage already w00t! Then it's off to Lindsey's for the annual "End of the Summer Shore House Retreat." YEAHHHHHHH. I look forward to this all summer every year. It's like the beginning of my official vacation. Actually going back to school will be a much needed downgrade of work compared to what I've been shelling out this summer. Then I've got one more week of work, and it's down to LBI for a week with my parents, my sister, her husband, and the kids! I really can't wait, I saw them both last Monday, and it was seriously like leeches attached for the entire 3 hours they were there lol. I miss em tons, and it's good to know the sentiment is shared.
Needless to say I'm not getting any sleep over vacation, or not any extra anyways lol. I know Marc and Alyssa will have me up by at least 5 am daily lol. I wouldn't trade that week for anything in the world though. When they were over we watched about 3/4 of Big which of course they had never seen being only 8 and 5. It's scary to think that's a classic already even to me. I often think about how many movies and experiences they'll never know about. I feel like it's my duty as an uncle to educate them. Yeah the fact that my nephew totally loves Star Wars is all Pete's fault. I was still in my Star Wars phase about the time he was 2-3. Hey at least I've got someone to talk to about it lol. I can be a closet case fan :) Funny how every time I see, get an IM, or talk to him on the phone, Marc has got some new interesting bit of information about what he's done in a video game, or what's new in his Animal Crossing town. Such a great game, I'm glad I bought that for him for Christmas last year. Him and his sister play it now, just what I had aimed for. Teaches him how to write letters, since he's a full blown reader for over a year and a half now, and her who's just starting. God I haven't played that game in months...time to boot it up again :P
The first Ipod I dropped, not that hard, but I got an error afterwards which isn't related to that thankfully. It's a folder with an exclamation point in it. This is like a corrupted folder/hard drive etc. It's actually a problem they've been getting. Probably because of the Malaysian made hard disks from Toshiba. When will you use Western Digital! So I returned that one on the 7th to BestBuy. I never bought the service plan they offer either. It's $40 for 2 years. Why should I pay more for that when Apple's warranty is 4 years! So I used my new one for abotu 3-4 weeks this July then 3 days ago the hold button started wackin' out on me. I would turn it off and it would still think it was on. I'd have to fiddle with it a couple times to get it on. I was freakin' out when I was at the diner with Matt and Amar and I tried turning it on and it appeared dead. Now amid all the discussions of battery life for the 3rd gen Ipods, mine had been pretty good on the two I've had. I get upwards of about 6-9 hours and they advertise something like 10. I have kept it not in the charger for 3 days at a time too and had a full charge when waking it up. Yes the Ipod "sleeps" and never is really off. That's how it achieves that kooky instant-on capability. I hadn't had one problem with the 2cd Ipod, but that hold button was annoying. Luckily there were 2 Apple stores somewhat nearby, one in Menlo Park Mall and one in Short Hills Mall. So I went with Matt to Menlo on Tuesday and they were amazing. Best customer service yet, seriously. I'm considering buying an Apple laptop (because I've wanted an Apple system, but not a desktop persay) to start putzing around with since their networking is a close second to Windows NT and 2000 servers. I even got to keep my current Ipod till then, so I'm not without music. And I'll have the new one in time for my LBI vacation! Rock on!
Waiting for Matt to give me a call to see if we're go for Atlantic City. Never been, can't wait to go. Hopefully he can get the money. He got the work coverage already w00t! Then it's off to Lindsey's for the annual "End of the Summer Shore House Retreat." YEAHHHHHHH. I look forward to this all summer every year. It's like the beginning of my official vacation. Actually going back to school will be a much needed downgrade of work compared to what I've been shelling out this summer. Then I've got one more week of work, and it's down to LBI for a week with my parents, my sister, her husband, and the kids! I really can't wait, I saw them both last Monday, and it was seriously like leeches attached for the entire 3 hours they were there lol. I miss em tons, and it's good to know the sentiment is shared.
Needless to say I'm not getting any sleep over vacation, or not any extra anyways lol. I know Marc and Alyssa will have me up by at least 5 am daily lol. I wouldn't trade that week for anything in the world though. When they were over we watched about 3/4 of Big which of course they had never seen being only 8 and 5. It's scary to think that's a classic already even to me. I often think about how many movies and experiences they'll never know about. I feel like it's my duty as an uncle to educate them. Yeah the fact that my nephew totally loves Star Wars is all Pete's fault. I was still in my Star Wars phase about the time he was 2-3. Hey at least I've got someone to talk to about it lol. I can be a closet case fan :) Funny how every time I see, get an IM, or talk to him on the phone, Marc has got some new interesting bit of information about what he's done in a video game, or what's new in his Animal Crossing town. Such a great game, I'm glad I bought that for him for Christmas last year. Him and his sister play it now, just what I had aimed for. Teaches him how to write letters, since he's a full blown reader for over a year and a half now, and her who's just starting. God I haven't played that game in months...time to boot it up again :P
Thursday, July 31, 2003
I love it when artists post their thoughts/comments on songs they've done. Here's a complete Track By Track from Linkin' Park about their new album "Meteora." Great album, and they bridge a lot of different sounds.
YEAH CHRIS ROCK!
Funny ass article about rappers trying to be pimps. Didn't they want to be gangstas yesterday?
Chris Rock was appalled by "Lil' Pimp," a cartoon movie in the works about a child pimp.
"That's where I draw the line. That's where I get corny. My daughter will not be at the kid pimp movie," says the comedian, whose movie "Pootie Tang" was akin to a pimp fashion show. "I want to meet the white executive who said, 'Yes! Lil' Pimp!'"
Lol what will this world churn up next. If any of you haven't seen Bad Boys II yet, get your ass out and SEE it soon! It was quite simply the best movie of the summer besides Matrix Reloaded if you count that as a summer blockbuster. Ahh it's almost the weekend, thank GOD. I need the shore, the beach, the bay, the shore house. And I need it soon...
Funny ass article about rappers trying to be pimps. Didn't they want to be gangstas yesterday?
Chris Rock was appalled by "Lil' Pimp," a cartoon movie in the works about a child pimp.
"That's where I draw the line. That's where I get corny. My daughter will not be at the kid pimp movie," says the comedian, whose movie "Pootie Tang" was akin to a pimp fashion show. "I want to meet the white executive who said, 'Yes! Lil' Pimp!'"
Lol what will this world churn up next. If any of you haven't seen Bad Boys II yet, get your ass out and SEE it soon! It was quite simply the best movie of the summer besides Matrix Reloaded if you count that as a summer blockbuster. Ahh it's almost the weekend, thank GOD. I need the shore, the beach, the bay, the shore house. And I need it soon...
Monday, July 28, 2003
Dubbed "Mr. Entertainment" star, Bob Hope has passed away. With over 475 tv shows and 1,000 radio shows, his career has spanned many decades. A man who was born in 1903 and made me laugh many a time. Some things are timeless and will always bridge the gap between generations. Rest in peace Bob. When Christmas rolls around, it will be bittersweet for your special will not be a part of my holiday anymore.
Concerned that information about your file-sharing username may have been subpoenaed by the RIAA?
How Not To Get Sued By The RIAA For File-Sharing
(And Other Ideas to Avoid Being Treated Like a Criminal)
I fully support the Electronic Frontier Foundation. They are a group of, as they put it, "non-profit group of passionate people — lawyers, volunteers, and visionaries — working to protect your digital rights." First of all these guys are non-profit which I really respect pro-bono work. Helps me to maintain the belief that not all lawyers are bloodsucking maggots as popularly believed. They're supporting a legal means of file-sharing which I think is a wonderful idea. There are two ways mp3/movie/media trading can go from here.
1) We continue to share files. Artists continue to lose a slight bit of money (since most of their income comes from concerts/venues anyways), but the music industry takes a big hit. The music industry will continue to lash out at anyone they can in a desperate attempt that is likeable to punching a 20ft wave. Sales of IPods skyrocket...
2) The RIAA and music industry get a much needed clue and work with artists and the common consumer to come up with a veritable solution that benefits everybody. Such things have already been put in motion, but they are not at full potential yet. Buy.com's BuyMusic just launched last week, and they actually are pretty reasonable. $7-$9.99 per album and individual songs ranging from $.79-$.99. That I could deal with. You even save by buying the album as a whole. I haven't seen any prices higher on standard CDs yet. Music needs to encompass an integration onto online media.
This is one area where the Britain comes through with shining colors. I recently borrowed and ripped (the RIAA does not scare me :) the Ministry of Sound's "The Annual" 2003. 2 CD-set mixed by DJ Sammy. Pretty decent. Not as good as 2002, but still some good hits. One song was really awesome and I totally got into it and went and found the video shortly after. Divine Inspiration's "The Way" is the name of the song. Upon going to the Ministry of Sound webpage I immediately saw the concise nature they'd arranged things into. When I found Divine Inspiration's page there was the music video streamed online for all to watch, and on the left menu bar options to download the song, and in many versions! I don't know about you, but when I find a good techno song (or even a rock hit that's been remixed), I go and try to find as many remixes as possible. Each one is usually better than the last. Well I found about 2 or 3 yesterday for this particular song, but there were some hard to get ones, or versions which only came in WMA (Windows Media format) which is horrible and gets delays playing in even winamp. Sounds like it needs to buffer like you were streaming it live online...hum. Well on the site you can buy all the versions, order the cd, buy it in vinyl, or burn it straight to cd. They only iff I have with this site is that they limit the times you can burn it per month. Some sites limit the times you can download it, or number of times you can burn it at all. Some of them don't even let you do that, but allow you to export it to a MP3 device. This doesn't make too much sense to me, (well it does for OBVIOUS reasons) but my logic here is that when I buy a CD, I now own the right to make personal copies to my heart's content. As long as I'm not passing them out to anyone, I could have Madonna's Hollywood cd copied 500x. Roughly 30% of my mp3 collection (out of 11,000 songs that's something like 3300) are legitimate owns, meaning I own the actual CD it came off of. The rest is a blatant smack to the music industry :) The accessibility of the site and the "shopping cart" buying experience makes it very Amazonlike in feel. I think it's well integrated, and if we could mimic the same thing on artists own websites, I think we'd see a resurgence in album sales once again. If I remember correctly there was a movie industry monopoly way back at the beginning of this century. FIL 485 taught me well, because I remember that monopoly was abolished by Thomas Edison. I serioulsy doubt the music industry will collapse, lol. They are going to have to adapt a little quicker though or suffer horrible sales not much unlike Jacko's latest album >:L
Pearl Jam is a once again bona fide unsigned band again! lol
How Not To Get Sued By The RIAA For File-Sharing
(And Other Ideas to Avoid Being Treated Like a Criminal)
I fully support the Electronic Frontier Foundation. They are a group of, as they put it, "non-profit group of passionate people — lawyers, volunteers, and visionaries — working to protect your digital rights." First of all these guys are non-profit which I really respect pro-bono work. Helps me to maintain the belief that not all lawyers are bloodsucking maggots as popularly believed. They're supporting a legal means of file-sharing which I think is a wonderful idea. There are two ways mp3/movie/media trading can go from here.
1) We continue to share files. Artists continue to lose a slight bit of money (since most of their income comes from concerts/venues anyways), but the music industry takes a big hit. The music industry will continue to lash out at anyone they can in a desperate attempt that is likeable to punching a 20ft wave. Sales of IPods skyrocket...
2) The RIAA and music industry get a much needed clue and work with artists and the common consumer to come up with a veritable solution that benefits everybody. Such things have already been put in motion, but they are not at full potential yet. Buy.com's BuyMusic just launched last week, and they actually are pretty reasonable. $7-$9.99 per album and individual songs ranging from $.79-$.99. That I could deal with. You even save by buying the album as a whole. I haven't seen any prices higher on standard CDs yet. Music needs to encompass an integration onto online media.
This is one area where the Britain comes through with shining colors. I recently borrowed and ripped (the RIAA does not scare me :) the Ministry of Sound's "The Annual" 2003. 2 CD-set mixed by DJ Sammy. Pretty decent. Not as good as 2002, but still some good hits. One song was really awesome and I totally got into it and went and found the video shortly after. Divine Inspiration's "The Way" is the name of the song. Upon going to the Ministry of Sound webpage I immediately saw the concise nature they'd arranged things into. When I found Divine Inspiration's page there was the music video streamed online for all to watch, and on the left menu bar options to download the song, and in many versions! I don't know about you, but when I find a good techno song (or even a rock hit that's been remixed), I go and try to find as many remixes as possible. Each one is usually better than the last. Well I found about 2 or 3 yesterday for this particular song, but there were some hard to get ones, or versions which only came in WMA (Windows Media format) which is horrible and gets delays playing in even winamp. Sounds like it needs to buffer like you were streaming it live online...hum. Well on the site you can buy all the versions, order the cd, buy it in vinyl, or burn it straight to cd. They only iff I have with this site is that they limit the times you can burn it per month. Some sites limit the times you can download it, or number of times you can burn it at all. Some of them don't even let you do that, but allow you to export it to a MP3 device. This doesn't make too much sense to me, (well it does for OBVIOUS reasons) but my logic here is that when I buy a CD, I now own the right to make personal copies to my heart's content. As long as I'm not passing them out to anyone, I could have Madonna's Hollywood cd copied 500x. Roughly 30% of my mp3 collection (out of 11,000 songs that's something like 3300) are legitimate owns, meaning I own the actual CD it came off of. The rest is a blatant smack to the music industry :) The accessibility of the site and the "shopping cart" buying experience makes it very Amazonlike in feel. I think it's well integrated, and if we could mimic the same thing on artists own websites, I think we'd see a resurgence in album sales once again. If I remember correctly there was a movie industry monopoly way back at the beginning of this century. FIL 485 taught me well, because I remember that monopoly was abolished by Thomas Edison. I serioulsy doubt the music industry will collapse, lol. They are going to have to adapt a little quicker though or suffer horrible sales not much unlike Jacko's latest album >:L
Pearl Jam is a once again bona fide unsigned band again! lol
Friday, July 25, 2003
This is the funniest thing I've ever seen. Most of them are pretty ridiculous but there's a few that crack me up.
Here's my #1 favorite reason to Hate The Matrix (And No I don't lol):
You've worked as a policeman your whole life, protecting the innocent, enforcing the law. You retire with honors, then take a job as a security guard, working the metal detector on the ground floor of a skyscraper in order to help pay for your wife's arthritis medication. You're sitting there, on a slow day, reading your newspaper, when a girl walks in wearing a trenchcoat. She issues no demands, no warnings, no "freeze" or "drop your gun." She just tears you in half with a spray of machine-gun fire, then does cartwheels along the walls while killing all your friends.
Here's a close runner up:
You are a hard-working single mother, making ends meet by doing time as a secretary in an office building during the day, a drug-store clerk in the evenings. You are on the office phone with the babysitter one quiet Wednesday afternoon, telling her how to calm little Dakota down, to get her to stop crying her eyes out asking why Mommy is never home, telling her that you'll be there soon, honey.
A split-second later your head is severed by a shattered helicopter rotor blade, the skull bouncing off a nearby wall, leaving a spray of arterial blood on a motivational poster. Your eyes bulge wide, your brain inside remaining alive just long enough to recognize the horror of your fate. Aviation fuel splashes in through the shattered windows and ignites, incinerating mothers, husbands, fathers, best friends.
And somewhere, a theater full of young, chubby males cheers because Trinity made it out before the crash.
That someone even took the time to write that totally speaks for the youth of America. We are the youth of the nation? God help us all.
Here's my #1 favorite reason to Hate The Matrix (And No I don't lol):
You've worked as a policeman your whole life, protecting the innocent, enforcing the law. You retire with honors, then take a job as a security guard, working the metal detector on the ground floor of a skyscraper in order to help pay for your wife's arthritis medication. You're sitting there, on a slow day, reading your newspaper, when a girl walks in wearing a trenchcoat. She issues no demands, no warnings, no "freeze" or "drop your gun." She just tears you in half with a spray of machine-gun fire, then does cartwheels along the walls while killing all your friends.
Here's a close runner up:
You are a hard-working single mother, making ends meet by doing time as a secretary in an office building during the day, a drug-store clerk in the evenings. You are on the office phone with the babysitter one quiet Wednesday afternoon, telling her how to calm little Dakota down, to get her to stop crying her eyes out asking why Mommy is never home, telling her that you'll be there soon, honey.
A split-second later your head is severed by a shattered helicopter rotor blade, the skull bouncing off a nearby wall, leaving a spray of arterial blood on a motivational poster. Your eyes bulge wide, your brain inside remaining alive just long enough to recognize the horror of your fate. Aviation fuel splashes in through the shattered windows and ignites, incinerating mothers, husbands, fathers, best friends.
And somewhere, a theater full of young, chubby males cheers because Trinity made it out before the crash.
That someone even took the time to write that totally speaks for the youth of America. We are the youth of the nation? God help us all.
Yikes! Stripes! Fruit Striped Gum!
Anbody remember THAT stuff? Geesh...we had some weird products in our childhood I'll tell ya. If you're feeling nostalgic try visiting Yesterdayland , it's a website devoted to the past liek 60-70 decades. Everything you remember having, playing with, watching, and doing is pretty well summarized there.
Well this week sure has gone fast. This summer hasn't been so bad concerning the Mundays. I haven't really been unhappy to go to work on a Monday yet. Last summer by this point I was just aching to get back to school and stop working. Now I'm enjoying going to work. This time next year I might be here as a hired employee! I'll be receiving salary...woah...weird!
Guess it's a good sign to be enjoying my work, I guess it shows that I'm prepared to enter the "REAL WORLD" OOOOOOOOOOH AHHHHHHHHHH EEEEEEEK. I never really get that. I mean yeah a lot of us will be graduating this year, but I mean come on, we'll most likely still be living with our families for a year at least. You won't be completely independant and out there on your own JUST yet lol. I know I plan on staying home for at least 2 years to get myself a bit settled. I think I'm going to work my ass off on overtime next spring/summer and get my loans paid off as fast as I can. God bless my grandmother, God rest her soul, for what she left me in her will. I had never known but apparently I was her favorite grandchild out of like the 32 of us. I do bear the name of her husband, and I did see her quite frequently. I pray none of you ever has to have a loved one living at their house their last dying days. Last dying days...she was with us for 2 years ::sigh:: That seems like so long ago now, but it was 1993. Things were so much different then... My sister didn't have ANY kids; I was just a kid myself. Every winter when Mother wears that fur coat, I can't help but remember it was my grandmother's coat too. Memories of rides to Christmas Eve mass in the backseat of the car rush back in. I hope that she's happy though, and with all those that left before her.
I always get to wondering if I'll meet all of the grandparents I never knew. My Mother's mother was the only grandparent I ever had. Being born late has its advantages. Sure I don't get cracked down on as hard as my brother and sister were. Any mistakes my parents made with them aren't made on me either lol. I've got like a second set of parents in Fred and Doreen, and I'm lucky enough to be an uncle to two wonderful kids. I hope I'm as good a parent as my sister one day. Then again I can rest assured that my kids will have a wonderful aunt. That's so weird to think about even. My sister and brother will be my children's aunt and uncle. It's like taking the whole generation we have right now, (my immediate nuclear family) and shifting it down a generation. Can I even see Peter in 10 years? Who will he be with? Where will he work? Live? But he's only 21, and he can't see that far into the future.
Sometimes I envy my brother and sister. They knew our grandparents. Not for too long, but they have a memory of them at all. I hope I one day meet my great grandfather. Apparently he's the one I take after the most. I've seen a picture of him where it's the entire family sitting at a picnic somewhere in Brooklyn. It's strange the locale seems so out of place; they're in some kind of grotto of foilage. There's everyone else, pretty miniscule in size, and the one man, massive and distinguished. I definitely get my size from him. Everyone else are short in stature. I wonder if they look down on me, and what advice they'd offer, could I speak to them.
Went to Cryan's last night. What a great place that is. It's like a mini-high school reunion every time we go. Found a new and amazing drink (well new to me anyways.) Dr. Pepper. No, not the soda. Those will definitely help me get on my way this Saturday night ;P Which is the eve of Andrew's next Rutgers party. Whoooo. Tonight we're hittin' up Clydes, this awesome Martini bar in New Brunswick. Can't wait for that. Today couldn't go faster :D I'm really enjoying the middle to tail-end of this summer. It's ridiculous how little time I have to myself really but I dont' think I'd have it any other way. I'm definitely not getting a surplus of sleep this summer, but as a matter of fact that doesn't bother me. I'm really looking forward to Lindsay's in August. She has us down to her shore house every year the first weekend in August. It's like a relaxing weekend for me and a chance to start up a base tan for our week down the shore. LBI I can hear you calling already. We're going to Atlantic City the night before to visit Tammy since she's only 20 mins away from Lindsay's. I've never been, should be fun.
Ugh I think these phones here need relative voice volume control. The last guy who called was definitely screaming. "HEWWOO INEED HEWP WITH MY COMPUTERRRRRRRR!"
WOAH WOAH WOAH EASY on the EARS there Chewbacca! I'm bleeding from the ears Pachino! Although I think it annoys me more when they speak too softly. I feel like I'm being molested via telephone. I think I'll go put in a harassment claim now.
Anbody remember THAT stuff? Geesh...we had some weird products in our childhood I'll tell ya. If you're feeling nostalgic try visiting Yesterdayland , it's a website devoted to the past liek 60-70 decades. Everything you remember having, playing with, watching, and doing is pretty well summarized there.
Well this week sure has gone fast. This summer hasn't been so bad concerning the Mundays. I haven't really been unhappy to go to work on a Monday yet. Last summer by this point I was just aching to get back to school and stop working. Now I'm enjoying going to work. This time next year I might be here as a hired employee! I'll be receiving salary...woah...weird!
Guess it's a good sign to be enjoying my work, I guess it shows that I'm prepared to enter the "REAL WORLD" OOOOOOOOOOH AHHHHHHHHHH EEEEEEEK. I never really get that. I mean yeah a lot of us will be graduating this year, but I mean come on, we'll most likely still be living with our families for a year at least. You won't be completely independant and out there on your own JUST yet lol. I know I plan on staying home for at least 2 years to get myself a bit settled. I think I'm going to work my ass off on overtime next spring/summer and get my loans paid off as fast as I can. God bless my grandmother, God rest her soul, for what she left me in her will. I had never known but apparently I was her favorite grandchild out of like the 32 of us. I do bear the name of her husband, and I did see her quite frequently. I pray none of you ever has to have a loved one living at their house their last dying days. Last dying days...she was with us for 2 years ::sigh:: That seems like so long ago now, but it was 1993. Things were so much different then... My sister didn't have ANY kids; I was just a kid myself. Every winter when Mother wears that fur coat, I can't help but remember it was my grandmother's coat too. Memories of rides to Christmas Eve mass in the backseat of the car rush back in. I hope that she's happy though, and with all those that left before her.
I always get to wondering if I'll meet all of the grandparents I never knew. My Mother's mother was the only grandparent I ever had. Being born late has its advantages. Sure I don't get cracked down on as hard as my brother and sister were. Any mistakes my parents made with them aren't made on me either lol. I've got like a second set of parents in Fred and Doreen, and I'm lucky enough to be an uncle to two wonderful kids. I hope I'm as good a parent as my sister one day. Then again I can rest assured that my kids will have a wonderful aunt. That's so weird to think about even. My sister and brother will be my children's aunt and uncle. It's like taking the whole generation we have right now, (my immediate nuclear family) and shifting it down a generation. Can I even see Peter in 10 years? Who will he be with? Where will he work? Live? But he's only 21, and he can't see that far into the future.
Sometimes I envy my brother and sister. They knew our grandparents. Not for too long, but they have a memory of them at all. I hope I one day meet my great grandfather. Apparently he's the one I take after the most. I've seen a picture of him where it's the entire family sitting at a picnic somewhere in Brooklyn. It's strange the locale seems so out of place; they're in some kind of grotto of foilage. There's everyone else, pretty miniscule in size, and the one man, massive and distinguished. I definitely get my size from him. Everyone else are short in stature. I wonder if they look down on me, and what advice they'd offer, could I speak to them.
Went to Cryan's last night. What a great place that is. It's like a mini-high school reunion every time we go. Found a new and amazing drink (well new to me anyways.) Dr. Pepper. No, not the soda. Those will definitely help me get on my way this Saturday night ;P Which is the eve of Andrew's next Rutgers party. Whoooo. Tonight we're hittin' up Clydes, this awesome Martini bar in New Brunswick. Can't wait for that. Today couldn't go faster :D I'm really enjoying the middle to tail-end of this summer. It's ridiculous how little time I have to myself really but I dont' think I'd have it any other way. I'm definitely not getting a surplus of sleep this summer, but as a matter of fact that doesn't bother me. I'm really looking forward to Lindsay's in August. She has us down to her shore house every year the first weekend in August. It's like a relaxing weekend for me and a chance to start up a base tan for our week down the shore. LBI I can hear you calling already. We're going to Atlantic City the night before to visit Tammy since she's only 20 mins away from Lindsay's. I've never been, should be fun.
Ugh I think these phones here need relative voice volume control. The last guy who called was definitely screaming. "HEWWOO INEED HEWP WITH MY COMPUTERRRRRRRR!"
WOAH WOAH WOAH EASY on the EARS there Chewbacca! I'm bleeding from the ears Pachino! Although I think it annoys me more when they speak too softly. I feel like I'm being molested via telephone. I think I'll go put in a harassment claim now.
Thursday, July 24, 2003
You know this morning I went and grabbed an egg-McMuffin for breakfast since I hadn't had one in forever and was running late. I said thank you to the guy, and he said to me "You know you're the first person who's said thank you in a month." Saying thank you for an egg-Mcmuffin...What is America coming to? :(
Wednesday, July 23, 2003
Well my worst fears are realized. CyberLife went out of business a few years back :L I got nostalgic today during a slow couple of hours at work and started looking up thing about Creatures 1, 2, and 3. Creatures was a revolutionary kind of game. It wasn't a game at all initially. With 2, 3, and Creature Adventures it got more kitschy and more fun-oriented, although C3 was the most complex artificial life system I've ever seen created, especially for home useage!
Creatures was created by CyberLife in the 90s and released 1997. I remember the first time I saw advertisements for it in a gaming magazine. Must have been around the time they were making Diablo cuz I was on the prowl for that game too. All I saw was a few eggs and a weird looking creature standing next to it with a big grin on it's face and saucer-plate eyes. It was the cutest thing ever, and the only words on the otherwise black page was "Their life is in your hands..." I had no idea what this was for as not even the game title was there. These truly were teaser ads at their best! I kept looking for new ones in the months to come. I finally found a more detailed ad a few months later detailing the first accurate artificial life system. These creatures had their own set of drives and needs and they had an AI unlike any I'd seen before. Yeah Tamagotchi's were the craze eh? I had one, and those were gay. Very gay. I wanted something that really was capable of AI. Creatures answer the call of my plea. The creatures would roam around their world, Albia, and the goal was to breed as many as you could and pass along genetic traits and genes. There was a villain of course the Grendel. These green baddy's could beat the heck out of your norn and even kill them! They spread disease, germs, and many a bad joke. And this was the first emergence I'd seen of a huge widespread internet fanbase. Remember this is a time when the internet was just gaining popularity for the common American. People created COBs, (objects you could import into Albia such as food machines, Grendel traps etc sky was the limit!), and traded Norns online to eachother by exporting and importing them.
Creatures 2 expanded on the series with a whole new world that had a thriving ecological system. Not only did the creatures biosystems become more complex but the ecosystem was just as, if not more! Plants would drop seeds which would germinate, some plants required pollination from animals flying around the world. There was introduced the genetic splicer which allowed you to combine any two creatures. There was a new one as well, the Ettin, a cute little white guy with dreadlocks who liked to steal things and run away with them. The Grendel was back but this time you could teach your Norns to defend themselves, or avoid him.
Creatures 3 finally came about the time I was a sophmore in HS. This game was so complex in terms of the biosystems it really blew my mind. I got into genetics at this point and read a ton on them, and wolfing runs. Kind of my own home Darwin experiments. I'd have a wolfing run in which I'd hatch about 10-20 eggs and leave them alone for a few days with no formal teaching. After that time I'd come back and see who was weeded out. Survival of the fittest indeed! The norns now had an immune system, could develop antibodies, and genetic flaws and adaptations were inherent. Quite the interesting game. I had found out that the C3 CD had broken somehow on my move into the Red House last fall. :L It had always run so slow on my old computers, I was going to retry it after like 6 years to see if it ran beautifully on my PC now.
Today I ordered C3, unopened, still in the cellophane from Ebay's Half.com. $1.75. I also ordered the same conditioned C2. Guess how much? $.99. Now I'm starting to see how things depreciate in value over time. A hi-fi stereo from the 70s is worth next to nothing today, and I never reallyl noticed this before. When C1 came out it had to be at least $30-$40. ::sigh:: It will be a pretty unique and cool screensaver kinda thing to leave running all the time :)
Thinking of buying Creatures Adventures (a kiddier version) for my niece and nephew. I think he'd really be into that seeing how he loved Animal Crossing. Yeah yeah, I played and own Animal Crossing. It's such an amusing little game lol. Something fun about visiting your nephew's town and having him send you letters and gifts in a little virtual world. It even has a cool password mail system where I can send him something without having to transfer it from a memory card. He just enters in a password, and I assume the game calculates and decodes what it means and what item it refers too.
That game definitely too up too much time...lol
Creatures was created by CyberLife in the 90s and released 1997. I remember the first time I saw advertisements for it in a gaming magazine. Must have been around the time they were making Diablo cuz I was on the prowl for that game too. All I saw was a few eggs and a weird looking creature standing next to it with a big grin on it's face and saucer-plate eyes. It was the cutest thing ever, and the only words on the otherwise black page was "Their life is in your hands..." I had no idea what this was for as not even the game title was there. These truly were teaser ads at their best! I kept looking for new ones in the months to come. I finally found a more detailed ad a few months later detailing the first accurate artificial life system. These creatures had their own set of drives and needs and they had an AI unlike any I'd seen before. Yeah Tamagotchi's were the craze eh? I had one, and those were gay. Very gay. I wanted something that really was capable of AI. Creatures answer the call of my plea. The creatures would roam around their world, Albia, and the goal was to breed as many as you could and pass along genetic traits and genes. There was a villain of course the Grendel. These green baddy's could beat the heck out of your norn and even kill them! They spread disease, germs, and many a bad joke. And this was the first emergence I'd seen of a huge widespread internet fanbase. Remember this is a time when the internet was just gaining popularity for the common American. People created COBs, (objects you could import into Albia such as food machines, Grendel traps etc sky was the limit!), and traded Norns online to eachother by exporting and importing them.
Creatures 2 expanded on the series with a whole new world that had a thriving ecological system. Not only did the creatures biosystems become more complex but the ecosystem was just as, if not more! Plants would drop seeds which would germinate, some plants required pollination from animals flying around the world. There was introduced the genetic splicer which allowed you to combine any two creatures. There was a new one as well, the Ettin, a cute little white guy with dreadlocks who liked to steal things and run away with them. The Grendel was back but this time you could teach your Norns to defend themselves, or avoid him.
Creatures 3 finally came about the time I was a sophmore in HS. This game was so complex in terms of the biosystems it really blew my mind. I got into genetics at this point and read a ton on them, and wolfing runs. Kind of my own home Darwin experiments. I'd have a wolfing run in which I'd hatch about 10-20 eggs and leave them alone for a few days with no formal teaching. After that time I'd come back and see who was weeded out. Survival of the fittest indeed! The norns now had an immune system, could develop antibodies, and genetic flaws and adaptations were inherent. Quite the interesting game. I had found out that the C3 CD had broken somehow on my move into the Red House last fall. :L It had always run so slow on my old computers, I was going to retry it after like 6 years to see if it ran beautifully on my PC now.
Today I ordered C3, unopened, still in the cellophane from Ebay's Half.com. $1.75. I also ordered the same conditioned C2. Guess how much? $.99. Now I'm starting to see how things depreciate in value over time. A hi-fi stereo from the 70s is worth next to nothing today, and I never reallyl noticed this before. When C1 came out it had to be at least $30-$40. ::sigh:: It will be a pretty unique and cool screensaver kinda thing to leave running all the time :)
Thinking of buying Creatures Adventures (a kiddier version) for my niece and nephew. I think he'd really be into that seeing how he loved Animal Crossing. Yeah yeah, I played and own Animal Crossing. It's such an amusing little game lol. Something fun about visiting your nephew's town and having him send you letters and gifts in a little virtual world. It even has a cool password mail system where I can send him something without having to transfer it from a memory card. He just enters in a password, and I assume the game calculates and decodes what it means and what item it refers too.
That game definitely too up too much time...lol
Anyone who knows me even modestly, knows that I'm a huge Michael Jackson fan. I have been for years since the early years of the 80s. In my eyes that man will always be the King of Pop. There is none higher. I don't stand there and defend everything the man does, but I can understand a good deal of it and sympathize. People wonder why he has such a fascination with childhood and children. I believe this stems from the fact that Michael never had a childhood. He was 8 and in the Jackson 5 by that time. Most children were playing and the like, but Michael was under the rule of their stern father, Joseph Jackson. Not allowed to go out and play, always required to stay close or with family, it was definitely not a normal child's life.
Jackson 5 is really about as pop as I get, considering I don't really respect other pop artists all that much. Ther's a few choice ones, but no one shines a candle to MJ and the J5. Yes there was the whole controversy in 1993 about Michael and that young fellow. While most people would stop there and continue to read the publications unfavorable to Mike, I've kept an open mind and found out as much as possible regarding that situation. That allegation was settled out of court, and later the boy admitted his parents had instructed him to lie to attorneys and police. Yeah it's easy to make somebody a scapegoat and ostricize them for things they've done, and even things they haven't. People can be really cruel by nature sometimes, and it's sad to see an individual suffer as a result. Still despite all the cruel things said about him, and all the criticism, I'm glad Mike is still around and battling it day by day.
Today I read an article on CNN concerning Michael and MP3's. While many music artists are all for the new bill that's being reviewed, Michael is quite against it and and jailing of any person who shares or downloads MP3s. This bill, if passed, would make it a FELONY to share OR download any MP3 under copyright. Mike made a statement involving this. "I am speechless about the idea of putting music fans in jail for downloading music. It is wrong to download, but the answer cannot be jail." Well spoken Mike. You've probably read my Mp3 rant below, and I couldn't agree more. This is a sloppy way of the music industry trying to clean up mistakes that they've made. It's a long hard road back from being greedy bastards! :P "Here in America we create new opportunities out of adversity, not punitive laws ...," he said. "It is the fans that drive the success of the music business; I wish this would not be forgotten." Most musicians are so quick to antagonize their fans when it is their fans who earn them all of their money. The music industry wouldn't mean jacko (no pun intended on one of MJ's nicknames lol) if there wasn't a consumer base for it. Mike ends off the statement saying that he thought the music industry and music fans should work together to figure it out. This has been the simple most intelligent idea I've heard concerning piracy in music yet. And not just because Mike said it.
I think it's a great idea to have the two mediums collaborate to find a solution. With the music industry attacking MP3 downloaders, and the downloaders just adapting and fighting back, there won't be any viable solution anytime soon. Just because you can't stop the P2P sharing services, doesn't mean you should take it out on the users. Certaintly mp3 trading is NOT a felony. There are MUCH worse crimes and certaintly offenses for which no laws prohibit yet!
Read the full article here.
Jackson 5 is really about as pop as I get, considering I don't really respect other pop artists all that much. Ther's a few choice ones, but no one shines a candle to MJ and the J5. Yes there was the whole controversy in 1993 about Michael and that young fellow. While most people would stop there and continue to read the publications unfavorable to Mike, I've kept an open mind and found out as much as possible regarding that situation. That allegation was settled out of court, and later the boy admitted his parents had instructed him to lie to attorneys and police. Yeah it's easy to make somebody a scapegoat and ostricize them for things they've done, and even things they haven't. People can be really cruel by nature sometimes, and it's sad to see an individual suffer as a result. Still despite all the cruel things said about him, and all the criticism, I'm glad Mike is still around and battling it day by day.
Today I read an article on CNN concerning Michael and MP3's. While many music artists are all for the new bill that's being reviewed, Michael is quite against it and and jailing of any person who shares or downloads MP3s. This bill, if passed, would make it a FELONY to share OR download any MP3 under copyright. Mike made a statement involving this. "I am speechless about the idea of putting music fans in jail for downloading music. It is wrong to download, but the answer cannot be jail." Well spoken Mike. You've probably read my Mp3 rant below, and I couldn't agree more. This is a sloppy way of the music industry trying to clean up mistakes that they've made. It's a long hard road back from being greedy bastards! :P "Here in America we create new opportunities out of adversity, not punitive laws ...," he said. "It is the fans that drive the success of the music business; I wish this would not be forgotten." Most musicians are so quick to antagonize their fans when it is their fans who earn them all of their money. The music industry wouldn't mean jacko (no pun intended on one of MJ's nicknames lol) if there wasn't a consumer base for it. Mike ends off the statement saying that he thought the music industry and music fans should work together to figure it out. This has been the simple most intelligent idea I've heard concerning piracy in music yet. And not just because Mike said it.
I think it's a great idea to have the two mediums collaborate to find a solution. With the music industry attacking MP3 downloaders, and the downloaders just adapting and fighting back, there won't be any viable solution anytime soon. Just because you can't stop the P2P sharing services, doesn't mean you should take it out on the users. Certaintly mp3 trading is NOT a felony. There are MUCH worse crimes and certaintly offenses for which no laws prohibit yet!
Read the full article here.
