|
8.30.2001
(Evening)
|
I
still don't know what I'm doing this weekend. I want to go camping,
but I'm torn between camping in Colorado, Arkansas, or Wisconsin.
I have relatives in Wisconsin that it would be nice to visit. Arkansas
is close, but I haven't seen the Rockies since I was old enough to
appreciate it. I think I'm going to regret not going if I don't go
to Colorado since it will probably be too cold to camp the next time
I have time to head to Colorado, but I think I'm going to do Wisconsin.
Too bad the Packers
aren't playing at home this weekend... |
|
8.30.2001
(Evening)
|
Whenever
I'm writing, I never want to use the word "gotten". It just
sounds kind of crude to me (not that I'm a stickler for grammar or
anything). As a matter of fact, I wasn't even entirely sure that it
was in fact a real word. So I checked my favorite resource for all
things grammatical, Dictionary.com.
Gotten
is in fact a real work, and in the process, it was brought to my attention
how very versatile the verb "get" is. |
|
8.27.2001
(Evening)
|
The
current issue (actually, the last issue now...) of The New Yorker
has a good, long article about Radiohead. In this article, Beavis
and Butthead are quoted. I didn't ever think I'd see Beavis and Butthead
quoted in The New Yorker. But now I have, and I actually don't feel
too different. Time to go to sleep. |
|
8.27.2001
(Evening)
|
Apparently
George W. Bush is
a dick... |
|
8.27.2001
(Evening)
|
I
heard that Space Ghost Coast To Coast aired a "previously unaired"
episode a month or two ago. I think it was one that was recorded earlier,
but never aired. Well, Space Ghost's website
claims (in a somewhat obscure way) that they're airing a new episode
in their upcoming
episode guide. I'm not sure if it's another new one, or the one
they showed a while ago.
But it sounds like the new episode features Thom Yorke of Radiohead
and Bjork. Oh happy day. Unfortunately, I think I'm going to be in
Wisconsin this sunday at a place with no cable. Oh sad day. I must
tape this episode, and get someone else to tape me a backup in case
mine fails. It has been damn near two years since I've seen a new
episode of Space Ghost. |
|
8.26.2001
(Afternoon)
|
? |
|
8.26.2001
(Early)
|
Just
got back from that little Rave deal... Nobody was dancing. It was
the damnedest thing. The music was good, and they had a guy trying
to whip up the crowd, but about 75% of the crowd was just standing
there. I am baffled. It was fun, nonetheless. Now I really need to
get to sleep. |
|
8.25.2001
(Evening)
|
Cool...
I just went into my storage area out on my patio and took out all
my old pants. I was able to bring all of the pants except four pairs
out of retirement. A few of them are still a bit tight, but they all
fit now, several of which were just gifts that I have never worn.
So sweet... Free new clothes... |
|
8.25.2001
(Afternoon)
|
My
life seems somewhat empty now that my unhealthy obsession with Jeff
Goldblum seems to have faded.
I feel like I should have a good obsession, but I can't seem to come
up with anybody worthy. I'm having trouble even putting a short list
together. Candidates could include This
American Life commentator and author
Sarah
Vowell, ex-MTV VJ Kennedy,
and it's really sad, but I can't even come up with a third. Sarah
Vowell would be an easier candidate... She lives near my parents,
and her career seems to be a bit more active these days. On the other
hand, Kennedy would be fun... I'd really have to go out of my way
to find out what she's up to. Oh well... Decisions, decisions... |
|
8.24.2001
(Evening)
|
You
really should be checking out Robot
Wisdom on a daily basis... |
|
8.24.2001
(Evening)
|
A
rather
nice guide to Unix C programming. |
|
8.24.2001
(Evening)
|
A
new
article on the article intelligence project Cyc. Let the robotic
apocalypse begin... |
|
8.24.2001
(Evening)
|
Hunter
S. Thompson to write new Babylon 5 telemovie. (humor) |
|
8.24.2001
(Evening)
|
Geekporn.
Not suitable for work. |
|
8.24.2001
(Evening)
|
I
just got back from seeing Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. I've seen
worse movies, I've seen better movies. It was rather slow in parts,
but I enjoyed it. I probably enjoyed it as much as any other movie
I've seen this year. Memento was good, and I enjoyed AI, but other
than that, I've seen a lot of stinkers this year. I need to go see
Curse of the Jade Scorpion now. I should have just stayed at the theater
and snuck into that one.
But now it's time to just hang back and get rested up for biking and
raving tomorrow. Miller
High Life... Eases the pain... |
|
8.23.2001
(Evening)
|
I
played Racquetball again today. My last partner didn't show up for
the last game we had set up, and I haven't seen him since. But I'm
playing with a guy from work now, and I think we have a regular thing
set up now. That's pretty cool. He's better than me, but the games
are still pretty competitive.
I guess the racquetball today and the skipping dinner to play Age
of Empires contributed to my new
low today. 246 is still nothing to be proud of, but I think I
was over 250 when I moved to Arkansas two and a half years ago. I
can probably count the number of times I exercised in Arkansas on
one hand. At least when I was taking classes I walked around on campus,
but once I was done with school, the only physical activity I had
was walking from my car to my office and from my car to my apartment.
I guess I'm doing better now. I think I was around 225 when I started
at UH. My tattoo weight is 227. Still have plenty to go, but I think
I'll get on my bike again tomorrow if it isn't raining.
I finished reading How
Real Is Real. It was a kind of interesting read... It's a book
sort of on communications theory from 1976. It had chapters on communication
in a military intelligence setting, counterintelligence, cryptography,
etc. They talked about a cool mission during World War II where the
allies had to leak fake intelligence to the Germans about the southern
invasion. They had to leak the information in a plausible way, so
they faked a plane crash of a high ranking officer carrying papers.
They had to dump a body on the beach, and fake the crash to convince
the Germans that they had just lucked onto the location of the southern
invasion. The Germans read the papers, and returned them to the body
seemingly untouched, because they believed that if the allies knew
they knew where the invasion was coming, the plans would change. Round
and round... I think I remember reading about that incident in Neal
Stephenson's book Cryptonomicon.
That was a damn good book, and if anybody wants to borrow it from
me, let me know
and I'll send you my copy.
But this How Real Is Real book also had some interesting stuff on
communication with Dolphins, game theory as it applies to negotiation,
communication with extraterrestrial life, and just some cool stuff.
It skimmed a lot of topics, but didn't go too in depth into anything.
But it was a good read. Definitely worth the $1.50 I picked it up
for. I need to find a little used book store around here and grab
some more. I finished up that one, and realized that I now have to
start reading The Tienanmen Papers again. It's been a while since
I've done this, but I think I'm going to write that one off. It's
very dry and quite difficult to read. I think it's about time to go
book shopping again.
But it is way past my bedtime. Time to sleep now. |
|
8.21.2001
(Evening)
|
Goodbye
Jesse
Helms... You will be missed. I mean, not by me of course, but
I'm sure there are plenty of racist, homophobic fuckfaces out there
that are going to miss you. |
|
8.21.2001
(Evening)
|
I've
been finding less and less interesting stuff to read on Salon
lately. They did have two good articles today, one on Sex
and the City, and one on Microsoft's
security problems. |
|
8.21.2001
(Evening)
|
California
congressman has opening for interns. Apply
here. |
|
8.21.2001
(Evening)
|
Here
is a partial transcript of an interview of Marilyn Manson by Bill
O'Reilly of The
Oreilly Factor. |
|
8.21.2001
(Evening)
|
It's
your favorite search engine, but did you know you can clothe
yourself in Google? |
|
8.20.2001
(Evening)
|
One of my favorite websites these days is Plastic.
Anyone can sign up as a user to submit story ideas (I've even had
one
accepted myself...) A new user has shown up lately named "wwjd".
He never seems to post anything other than his answer to "What
Would Jesus Do?" regarding whatever the story is. He's fairly
consistently modded down, I think mostly as a knee-jerk negative reaction
to all things Christian at the website, but sometimes his comments
are pointless
and sometimes a bit inflammatory.
Sometimes they're just a
bit wacky...
|
|
8.20.2001
(Evening)
|
Via
Gurney
Halleck: Do you lack the time, energy, or stamina to carry out
your own political protest? That's OK, just outsource
it... |
|
8.20.2001
(Evening)
|
Let's see... Tweekend
has been out for about two weeks. I just heard the first song to be
used off the album on TV. "Name of the Game" is currently
running behind Monday
Night Football halftime footage... |
|
8.20.2001
(Evening)
|
Next
week, we get a new
book from The
Onion. I'm sure I've already read everything in it, but still...
Must... Buy... |
|
8.20.2001
(Evening)
|
Well, I did go to see The
Crystal Method last Saturday. Eh, I guess it was all right. I
saw them twice before when I used to live in Houston, and those were
a lot more fun. This show was crowded, expensive, and far too short.
I think the opening act, UberZone,
played longer than The Crystal Method. They didn't open the doors
to the place unti 10:30, and it took a while to move equipment around
on the stage before TCM went on. They didn't start playing until around
12:00, and only went until 1:30. It was so crowded in there, dancing
was next to impossible.
But after the show, there was a little after party at Raoul's
Velvet Room in Lawrence. They stayed open until around 4:00 with
a DJ playing some nice house... I paid too much for water and Red
Bull, but it was cool to find a place that was open late. I'm
going to a real Rave type deal this weekend. Monk (of Rabbit
In The Moon), among others is going to be there. Maybe I'm too
old for the raving
that all these kids are doing these days, but fuck it... I need to
do something this weekend... |
|
8.20.2001
(Evening)
|
Comments
from the victor of our Road to Springfield challenge... Now what
the hell am I going to write about on here? |
|
8.20.2001
(Evening)
|
I thought this
was a cool article... This newspaper had a contest where they asked
readers to name Bill Clinton's new $10 million memoir. I think my
favorite was "The Wonderful Wizard of Is". |
|
8.20.2001
(Evening)
|
Thank
You, George W. Bush... Now I can afford to go to that
rave this weekend... |
|
8.19.2001
(Late)
|
I should go to sleep. But apparently, a lot
of other people should too... |
|
8.19.2001
(Late)
|
I
just got back from Crystal
Method, and a little after party. Danced my ass off, and I have
a new low
to show for it. I almost feel like I'm cheating since it's so early
and I normally weigh myself just before I go to bed (10-11 most nights...)
but I'll take what I can get. I need to sleep now... |
|
8.18.2001
(Morning)
|
Congratulations Neal
Morgan... Burns was an unstoppable
juggernaut, and you were on the right bandwagon from the beginning.
Your valuable prizes are in the mail. |
|
8.16.2001
(Evening)
|
Well,
I finally checked out that trail I found last week. I think I rode
a total of 19 miles or so. The trail started at a marker saying 10.5
miles, and I rode up it until I got to mile 1.5. The trail system
is so expansive that I got lost on my way back and think I did a loop
that added somewhere between one and two miles to my overall trip.
But now I'm tired and I have to clean up the apartment. Dammit...
And Ralph is still down 834-694. Dammit... |
|
8.16.2001
(Evening)
|
As of right now, Ralph
trails 505-424. It doesn't look good. |
|
8.16.2001
(Morning)
|
N*Sync
is my anti-drug. |
|
8.15.2001
(Evening)
|
I
almost never get burgers any more, but I didn't feel like cooking
anything tonight, so I went to Sonic. The whole trip there I was drooling
over the double cheeseburger with everything I was about to enjoy.
I got my stuff and came home, only to open my bag and find a plain
single hamburger with nothing but mustard. I'm pissed, but too tired
and lazy to drive back to Sonic. Such is my life. I'm going to read
now. |
|
8.15.2001
(Evening)
|
It
comes down to Ralph
vs. Mr. Burns. I find myself compelled to point
out that Ralph did defeat Barney by a bigger margin than Burns
over Moe. And I dare say that Barney has to be a more popular character
than Moe. Either Neal
or I will take this one...
However, I will now lay off the smack talk lest I inspire even more
anti-Ralph sentiment than is already surrounding this matchup. It
seems to me that this is going to be a matchup of epic proportions.
|
|
8.15.2001
(Evening)
|
Well,
I guess we all
misplace things every once in a while... |
|
8.14.2001
(Evening)
|
With
today's Mr. Burns win, Neal has vaulted himself into a tie for third
place. Ralph is currently in a commanding lead, but if Mr. Ross can
spearhead a get out the vote effort, he can still win the tournament
with an overall Barney Gumble win. An overall Mr. Burns win gives
it to Mr. Morgan. I win with Ralph. Let it end now.
And somebody beat me to hosting the Kansas City party. I'll be heading
out there, at least. It'll at least give me an excuse to go somplace
new around here. |
|
8.14.2001
(Evening)
|
Years
ago, I used to go to a site called Rogue
Market. It's still around, but not really maintained any more.
Basically what it was was a fake stock exchange where you bought and
sold stock in movie stars, trying to maximize the value of your portfolio.
Hollywood Stock Exchange
is a similar deal, but more well done. I just joined... God knows
how much spam they'll send my way, but I think it'll be fun to mess
around with. My stake in Jeff Goldblum made me some major bank on
Rogue Market. |
|
8.14.2001
(Morning)
|
Happy
Birthday, Steve
Martin. |
|
8.13.2001
(Evening)
|
And
things begin to draw to a close. Road
To Springfield has entered the final four, and the overall championship
in our Road To Springfield
Challenge is down to three possible winners. Today's matchup is
between Mr. Burns and Moe. Burns is winning by a wide margin currently.
However, if Moe manages to pull an upset and Barney somehow sobers
up enough to take out the Unstoppable Ralph Wiggum, Michael Ross will
win the tourney with an overall score of 11 points.
A Burns win today will leave myself, Neal Morgan, and Mr. Ross tied
for first with 7 points. When Ralph wins the day after tomorrow, I
will vault into the lead with 9 points, securing at least second place.
In my analysis, this comes down to a final showdown between myself
and Neal Morgan. I still think that Ralph can pull out a win, but
I think that the Burns-Wiggum matchup is going to be a squeaker, whoever
manages to pull it off... But we shall see Friday night. Should I
host the Kansas City RTS party? |
|
8.13.2001
(Morning)
|
Big
Smith played two excellent shows Friday and Saturday night. Looks
like I'll be missing them for a while, but in mid-October they're
playing three shows in their home town of Springfield, MO. All three
of those shows will be recorded for a possible live album, and some
friends of mine and I are putting together a trip out there to catch
those shows. If anybody's interested, let me know.
In other news, The
Sopranos started re-runs again last night. They're showing the
entire first three seasons again sequentially. Last night was the
first episode. Unfortunately, it's up against The Simpsons. I guess
it's not that big a deal since you can go to Blockbuster and rent
all of season one and season two, and I would think that you'll probably
be able to get season three by the time they start showing it next
spring. But I'm watching since I have seen very little of the first
season, and missed a lot of the second.
Speaking of TV shows on DVD, I heard a rumor that the first season
of Twin
Peaks will be released on DVD around Christmas time. I'll have
to get that, and I hope it sells enough that they release the rest.
I have the series on tape, but those degrade and it would be nice
to get the series in something that isn't going to go away, and I
hear that David Lynch is going to do a commentary track. That could
be cool.
Ah, but the weekend is over. About time to head back to work. Have
a good day all... |
|
8.10.2001
(Evening)
|
Well,
off to Fayetteville. See you all there... |
|
8.10.2001
(Morning)
|
Morning
Edition ran a review of American Pie 2 today... As of right now,
the audio for the show isn't up on their
site, but it'll be up by noon today and I suggest you check it
out. I love smarmy negative reviews... |
|
8.09.2001
(Evening)
|
Joe
Rogan, the wacky electrician from News Radio, and current host of
Fear Factor, has his
own website... (Don't go there from work). Lots of porn and commentary
on porn. Plus, it has a list of his upcoming stand-up dates. He's
going to be in Omaha October 5th and 6th. I'm definitely heading up
there. |
|
8.09.2001
(Evening)
|
If
you haven't grabbed them yet, you can view two internet only trailers
for Jay and
Silent Bob Strike Back here
and here.
I'm looking forward to the movie, but this
guy apparently isn't. The site almost looks a little hoax-ish
to me, though... |
|
8.09.2001
(Evening)
|
Today's
episode of News
Radio is probably my favorite... They're in space for some reason,
and there are lots of cool sci-fi references. If you're going to
be home 30 minutes from now (5:30 Central) I would suggest you watch
it. I'm not sure if the West Coast gets a different feed and it's
actually on at 5:30 local over there or what...
And here, read an interview
with Dave Foley if you're bored. It looks like Dave's keeping
busy, and there's a documentary
out there somewhere about the KITH reunion tour from a couple years
back. He's going to be in Run
Ronnie Run whenever that comes out.
Wow, also in Run Ronnie Run: Jeff Goldblum, Maynard James Keenan
(Tool's lead singer), Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Andy Richter, Scott
Thompson, Ben Stiller... Damn, that movie needs to be released.
|
|
8.09.2001
(Evening)
|
About
to go give racquetball another shot. Last time I played, my arm was
sore all night and most of the next day. If I get the same response
today, I'll lay off for a week or so.
In better news, I got an email from the guy who's running Road To
Springfield. His server is down because @Home
is blocking
incoming port 80, which means their customers can no longer run
web servers behind cable modems. They did this in response to the
Code Red worm, which is apparently kicking the ass of many cable modem
providers. If RoadRunner ever decided to do this, Gimpysoft would
be dead as well, and I might have to actually pay for web hosting,
and no longer have complete control over the server. That would suck,
but RoadRunner is being cool so far...
I offerred up this server for Road To Springfield, but he thinks he
has another plan that will have them back up tomorrow. But if you
come here tomorrow and get Road To Springfield, don't say I didn't
warn you. Just vote. And be sure to check RTS
tomorrow to get your vote in... |
|
8.08.2001
(Evening)
|
I just got back from a nice walk. I found a park over here that
I didn't know was there. If I didn't already have plans to head
down to Fayetteville to catch Big
Smith, I'd go on a bike ride out at that park. Maybe next weekend.
If I haven't already linked this, I will now. You can see about
30 minutes of video from Steve
Kimock Band's show at Tipitina's
in New Orleans here.
There's some more video there as well, including some Leftover
Salmon and others... Somebody get me a job doing their video
production... Any clubs up here in KC want to hire me to put something
like this together for you?
I'm not sure why, but I pulled out my copy of Beelzebubba
by The
Dead Milkmen recently and I've been listening to it quite a
bit. "Stuart"
is just a great song, and "Punk
Rock Girl" is on this one too... I've been thinking that
I need to get some more of their albums and luckily I can get them
on the official
site maintained by the band. Actually, I think I want to get
the cool Cow
T-Shirt too...
|
|
8.08.2001
(Evening)
|
Fun
with Microwaves... Or you can get a little more extreme
with this sort of experimentation.
|
|
8.08.2001
(Evening)
|
These
folks are trying to collect 1,000,000 AOL CDs to personally
return them to America Online's headquarters and request they stop
sending them to us. Be sure to send yours in.
|
|
8.08.2001
(Evening)
|
Mark your calendars, August 24 is Slacker
Day.
|
|
8.08.2001
(Morning)
|
My
anti-drug is alcohol.
|
|
8.07.2001
(Evening)
|
I think that Road To Springfield is dead. This makes me sad. Does
anybody have any idea what happenned?
|
|
8.07.2001
(Night)
|
From Memepool,
a scary
video of Steve Ballmer of Microsoft.
|
|
8.06.2001
(Evening)
|
Still no Road
To Springfield... This would be a crappy way for this to end...
|
|
8.06.2001
(Morning)
|
Football on TV tonight. Cool. Cool. Cool.
Also, I haven't been able to connect to the Road
To Springfield website since yesterday at around noon. That's
odd. Hopefully he'll fix it soon... We should finish up the contest
this week.
|
|
8.03.2001
(Evening)
|
Another one bites the dust. Apu goes down to Moe. Places don't
change much, though...
|
|
8.02.2001
(Evening)
|
Wow... Moe
is beating Apu right now... I certainly didn't see that coming,
but go Moe!
|
|
8.02.2001
(Evening)
|
Timber
industry propaganda in response to Dr. Seuss' "The Lorax".
Starring Truax, the friendly lumberjack.
|
|
8.02.2001
(Evening)
|
A sequel
to Tron is in the works. I'm in favor, if only so they'll make
a new Tron video game.
|
|
8.01.2001
(Evening)
|
Well, the elite eight have been chosen, and the final outcome of
our challenge is shaping
up. Before I launch into my analysis, I'll have to take this
opportunity to taunt Thomas Warren, who made not one successful
pick.
Ha-Ha.
Now, as for the rest of you: Ed Walsh remains in first place, but
the first matchup in the final four is Burns-Willy, and Willy is
down currently. Directly behind Ed is Michael Ross. He only chose
5 of the 8 correctly, but has more picks in the later rounds alive.
I'm behind in third, and a Willy loss hurts me pretty badly as well.
Things drop off rapidly after that.
Raj successfully picked four, but only two of his final four picks
are alive, and he has neither of them picked to advance from there.
Only eight possible points. Greg only picked three, and has only
one picked to advance. Only five points possible for Greg. Since
Ed already has six points, you are done.
Now Neal's a bit more interesting. He only picked one of the elite
eight correctly, but it's a strong candidate, Mr. Burns, and he
has him picked to go all the way. A Burns win earns Neal 15 points.
The most any of the rest of us could earn with a Burns win is 10
(Ross). So a Burns win overall would vault Neal to an overall victory.
Taking a closer look at the brackets, any of the contestants whose
final picks are still alive would win the overall if their final
pick is correct. Since Willy looks like he's going down here, Ed
looks like he's out of the hunt. The only way Ed could win is with
an overall win by a dark horse candidate, either Troy McClure, Grampa,
Barney or Moe. I don't think it's going to happen, but I could be
wrong. Well fought, good sir.
I like Apu, and I'm glad that he came on stronger than I had expected
him to. I even hope he takes out Burns. But I don't think he has
what it takes to go all the way.
Myself, I regret nothing. I stand by my pick of Ralph Wiggum for
the overall victory.
Your comments?
|
|
8.01.2001
(Evening)
|
I met a guy at my apartment complex that works in another department
at my company. He and I played a couple games of Racquetball today.
He's a much better match for me than my last Racquetball partner.
I did lose both games, but 12-15 and 14-16, and made him fight for
that last one. Maybe I'll get
in shape one of these days.
|
|
8.01.2001
(Evening)
|
Kevin
Smith - "I've
been knee-deep in gayness for the better part of my twenties and up..." |
