Ghost Town Rabid Underworld

I'll Tell You What I'll Buy, Thank You Very Much

2006-07-07T10:55:00.000-07:00

Allright, so this is sort of a follow-up to my last post. I've been interested in marketing and advertising lately, for a number of reasons. Sharla graduated with a degree in that sort of thing, so I'd like to help her along. Also, either her or I would like to start a business of our own sometime, so it's something that I'd like to educate myself in. I don't pretend to know a lot about it, but I am an active consumer in this materialistic society of ours, and am capable of realizing and pointing out certain things.

Our marketing/advertising society can't seem to decide what direction that they'd like to go with marketing and advertising certain groups or individuals. On one hand, you have groups who market to everyone as a mass group. This is traditional. You air commercials on prime time TV that appeal to everyone, you mail mass market junk mail to everyone. One document or campaign appeals to the lowest common denominator and tries to reach as many people as possible. It's annoying, but it's effective. But also turns off consumers who call the advertisers on their crap and want to know why their service or product specifically should appeal to them.

I'm one of those. Unless I already know that I want what you are trying to sell, you'd better be convincing me personally that I need or want it. Otherwise, I want no part of it. And I have a right to be a picky consumer, it's my hard earned cash that you are asking me to hand out.

Now of course, there is the other side of marketing that does just this. It tries to specifically appeal to consumer. This can be more effective, but is more dangerous. Spam falls in this category, those bogus shopping card deals from grocery stores fall in this category. Want to know how ridiculous some of those are? Best Buy and Books-A-Million ask you to pay for this. Yeah, that's right. You pay them to collect information on what you buy so that they can specifically market to you via email and snail mail. They do offer nice deals in return, so it's nearly a fair trade.

The perfect solution? As with anything, you find a happy medium. Tell me why I want your product, but don't collect information on me that I'd prefer you not to have. Just because I walk into Wal-Mart and buy something doesn't mean that I'm interested in it. Maybe I'm buying it for someone else as a gift. Appeal to my good nature and advertise the good deals you have on video games because I choose to tell you that its what I'm interested in buying. I'll be happy to be a loyal customer if you continually offer good deals to me on that front, yet stay out of my personal business.

And that's the marketing solution. Bring the people in with unobtrusive mass marketing, but categorize them into paticular groups (that they won't mind being in) once you have them baited. For instance, Sharla is considering opening a fashion store. She'd appeal to everyone with classy advertising that represented her type of business, then categorize her customers. Teenagers who want to buy prom dresses, college students who want bridesmaid or wedding dresses. Politely ask for information, telling them that you can offer them good deals on what they are looking for, and then keep your presence and good deals on their mind. Form a relationship with them and they'll have one with you.

Steal my ideas and I'll hunt you down. I know where you live.

HisSpace

2006-06-30T11:38:00.000-07:00

One thing that has been bugging me lately is the realization of how business-oriented and corporate nearly every aspect of life is these days. What is more bothersome is everyone's ignorance of that fact and their unwillingness to really realize it or do anything about it.

A good example is an incident today. But before we get to that, let's go through some background information.

I recently signed up on MySpace, despite my initial reluctance to do so. I don't really care for the design or idea of the site, but its usefulness is outweighing its stupidity in a few ways, especially being able to keep up with good friends. I likely wouldn't be able to do so in the same degree without it. Of course, the evil empire of Rupert Murdoch owns MySpace. If you are keeping score at home, the same organization of Fox Sports, FSN, and Fox News. Which really makes it "HisSpace", meaning everything that you are seeing is the result of a boardroom decision. It isn't so that you can talk with your friends or make new ones, it's so that you will buy what they tell you and do what they tell you in the manner that you tell you. Of course, I choose to ignore this aspect because I'm able to talk with my friends at home. I endure this evil for the greater good.

Out of sheer curiosity, I checked out a page for the late Johnny Cash. It seemed disrespectful of the label and News Corporation to exploit a dead man's career, and I left my two cents. Mere minutes later, I found that I had two private messages from a few fourteen year olds explaining deep and significant thoughts.

"OMG, Ic4n't belEVE You DSS Jhnny CSH like dat. You R teh SUCK!"

...it's like a fish obediently jumping onto the bait. What scares me isn't the sort of marketing that is being pushed on our society, but the willingness to take it out of the spoon that is being fed to them.

Even Johnny Wouldn't Have Had This

2006-06-30T11:08:00.000-07:00

That's possibly the best center field dive I've ever seen. I can't remember even Andrew taking a dive like that. He probably has, but it certainly isn't in my memory.

Dad and Baseball

2006-06-19T09:57:00.000-07:00

It really sucks to be a Braves fan right now. Whenever you think about the club, there's a sense of dread and depression hanging above your head. I'm not ready to give up on them yet because the team has pulled off some insane stuff in the past, and I probably won't give up on them until it's entirely mathematically impossible for them to even win the Wild Card. The Red Sox are my other favorite MLB team, and having followed them for around six or seven years, I've learned how to be a hard-headed and stubborn fan. Even when it looks as bad as it could get, you still stick it out. That's just how it's done.

Since Father's Day fell on the same weekend that I caught a game at The Ted, I started to think about how my Dad passed the Braves on to me. It's sort of like Star Wars. I remember always seeing both those films and Braves games, but I really couldn't tell you when the first time I saw either was. I can't remember a time when there wasn't either, they've been two constants in my life, and my Dad gave me both. Sharla asked me while we were waiting in line if I'd pass the Braves on to my eventual kids someday. Sure I will. I think it's one of the greatest things I could give them. Whether they play good baseball or suck like they do right now, they're ours. And they know we are thiers. The club and the front office care for thier fans like no other professional sports organization I can think of. It's a wonderful mutual relationship. Right now, I'm reading 'Faithful' by Stephen King and Stewart O'Nan. O'Nan says that one day his Dad slapped a Red Sox cap on his head and told him "they ain't much, but they're all we've got."

In the meantime, I'll continue to stick it out with the Braves. I'll be depressed for a while if they completely fall out, but I won't shed a tear. They've pulled off stuff in the past to be proud of, and I'm sure they will in the future. With this sort of thing, it really isn't just winning or losing.

Although winning would be nice.

Speaking of Huntsville

2006-06-13T18:00:00.000-07:00

..it occured to me that I wanted to post more pictures in this blog. Flickr is still cool, but I'm getting near to filling up my capacity, and I'm not really convinced to pay twenty dollars a year for it just yet. Using Facebook to put my pictures online is a lot more practical since space is limitless and it gets the pictures out to more of my friends than Flickr does.

So yeah, speaking of Huntsville, I am glad that this is all I can see out my front door.

The tree hides the ugliness beyond.

Huntsville Gets Props!

2006-06-13T17:52:00.000-07:00

Since I've been living in Huntsville, I have yet to be really impressed with the town. The popular joke is that to really make it in Huntsville, you either have to have an Engineering degree or sell crack. Seriously. It's either $200,000 houses, or the ghetto. There is no middle ground.

However, The Colbert Report recently gave Huntsville some props for a version of economic stimuli other than engineering missles that kill people.

I may learn to like the town yet.

In my absence...

2006-05-28T20:01:00.000-07:00

Yeah, so the reason I have been around in other places than this blog recently is because I've been finishing the spring semester and then getting married. Which sort of overlapped with each other, which in addition to moving everything and taking care of other excess paperwork, has obviously gotten me bogged down in everything involved. It's only now that I'm starting to find a swing of things to get into and becoming settled down in something resembling regular stuff.

Getting married was fantastic. I don't really have any idea as to why I took so long with Sharla, as she's the best thing that has ever happened to me. I didn't really realize how lucky I was until after we had become married and got to hang out with each other all the time. It sounds sort of stupid, but I don't care. Everything is just better with her there.

Now that I've jumped into this headfirst with her, I can start focusing on the Summer. Like most of the projects that I want to get accomplished. One of which will be buying a domain for my website and finishing the design for that. I hope to have that done by the end of June or the beginning of July at the latest.

List of Things I Want To Do Before I Die

2006-05-12T09:36:00.000-07:00

I've often alluded to this, but it's time that I've concretely made it out and knew what I have ahead of me. And also what I've already accomplished. So here goes.

Travel
~~Visit another country~~
~~Visit the West Coast / California~~
~~See Gramm's Chinese Theater~~
Visit New York
Visit Europe
Visit Australlia / New Zealand
Visit Japan

People I Want To Meet
~~Ray Park~~ (Darth Maul in Star Wars)
~~Bobby Cox~~ (Manager of the Atlanta Braves)
~~Hank Aaron~~
~~Bud Selig~~ (Commissioner of Baseball)
George Lucas
Quentin Tarantino
Steven Spielberg
Peter Jackson
Shigeru Miyamoto (Creater of Mario, Zelda, etc.)

Events I Want To Attend
~~Star Wars Celebration(s)~~
~~The Academy Awards~~ (Okay, well I sorta did.)
Burning Man
E3
Sundance Film Festival

Things I Want To Do
~~Ride a Zamboni~~
Parajump
Climb the Sydney Harbor Bridge

Of course, this is all for right now. I'm sure I'll be adding to and editing this post as time progresses. I'll probably add something for everything that's checked off too.

Nintendo E3 Press Pass

2006-05-10T11:42:00.000-07:00

Yeah, Nintendo is hitting E3 out of the park with the Wii / Revolution announcements. Want some more inside info?

http://press.nintendo.com/e32k6/index.html

Username: golin
Password: harris

You can thank me later.

Holy crap.

2006-05-03T19:45:00.000-07:00

I didn't think I'd live to see the day...

Original Unaltered Star Wars Trilogy on DVD

Of course, I am upset that this wasn't released in the first place. But that's beside the point. This is getting heavily hinted at for Christmas.

"Standoff"

2006-05-01T09:11:00.000-07:00

This was the first Dirrty Apple short that I've been able to use within a class project. I used this as part of an art site that I did for graphic design, but the sucky thing is that I won't be able to find out how much my teacher liked it because it's part of my final.

Anyhoo, here it is. Hope you like it.

Headlights at Night - Part 3

2006-04-11T07:52:00.000-07:00

And now we begin to come to the conclusion of our tale. Before we jump back in, and finish this story with what is the craziest part, be mindful that this really happened. Some things are slightly exaggerated, but not to the point that makes it fiction. As likely as you are not to believe this, it really did occur. We'll pick up the next week after the late night chase, in which the mystery caller most likely had the unmentionables scared out of him as Jonathan and Brian ambushed him. Yet, even after this, the guy continues to come to the driveway and back out during the wee hours of the morning.

At this point, Jonathan is becoming concerned about this guy. He's questioned his neighbors, who haven't even seen this guy because it's so late at night. They don't know a thing about him, or what he's up to. It sounds so crazy, they probably thought Jonathan was simply making the whole thing up. So he decides to take manners into his own hands. After yet another week of this guy coming to the driveway, he decides that he's going to catch this guy red handed in whatever it is that he's doing.

So he gets a gun. Well, let's rephrase that. He gets a "dummy" gun. I don't remember exactly, but it's either a toy gun, or an unloaded gun. Jonathan decides, that on his own, without Brian, he's going to camp out in his sister's yard and trap the guy. See, since Jonathan's house was at the end of this dead end road, he'd more or less have the guy caught. Apparently, he'd planned on standing at the outlet of the road, gun drawn. But it doesn't really go down like this.

So he actually does this. You'd think he'd have to be insane to try this. Whoever this is, we didn't know who he was, what he wanted, what kind of person he was, or whether this mystery guy would be armed or not. Jonathan doesn't even tell anyone that he's going to do this. Not me, not even Brian. We'd probably have told him that it was a crazy idea and would have convinced him not to do it. But he's nuts and does it anyways.

In doing this, he's waiting, lying down on his front side in his sister's yard. And the guy actually comes. Again. And it would seem that Jonathan actually has this working. He can see him turning around in his driveway at the end of the road, and he's planning to trap him and finally ask him what in the world he's been doing. But there's a problem. As I mentioned, Jonathan didn't mention to anyone that he had planned on this. Not even his sister or her husband.

As you might guess, this is where the crap hits the fan. And remember, he's lying down in their yard with what appears, to the naked eye, to be a live gun. The door slams from their house, and his brother in law, who happens to be of Hispanic heritage comes out. This guy's favorite show is COPS, and he's memorized all of the CB lingo that the police officers use. He sees this shady character lying on the ground with a gun, not knowing that it's Jonathan, and starts screaming things like "burglary in progress" in this high pitched, accented voice. This inevitably wakes up Jonathan's sister. She immediately dials 911. During this confusion, Jonathan gets up and tries to explain to his brother in law what is going on, but it's too late. Not only have the cops been called into this, but the mystery guy pulling into the driveway has gotten away while this was going on.

About twenty minutes later, the cops pull into the yard, confused as everyone else is. Jonathan has to explain to everyone involved, even his parents who have now come, what exactly happened. He gets a scolding from everyone involved, even though inside, they are probably rolling with laughter at the situation.

Now, back to the origin of our story. Jonathan has just finished telling this to Sharla and myself in her car, on the way to go see Return of the King. He's a master storyteller and has taken around a half hour to get to this point. Of course, he's neglected to mention one thing, and we are asking him about it. What happened to the guy who was pulling in to the driveway? Did they ever find out who it was? What was he doing?

"Well", he says. "Two weeks later we found out that it was the paperboy."

Headlights at Night - Part 2

2006-04-10T10:05:00.000-07:00

As we return to our story, it's important to remember that this was during the Summer. And it was during the Summer following our senior year at high school. We were in the process of finding Summer jobs, getting ready to start college the following Fall, and not really doing much of anything else at all. Leaving us with a lot of time to become really inquisitive and highly likely to do something crazy as a result. Much of this free time led to instances such as my friends leaving a mountain of political campaign signs in my front yard, or us holding inanimate items hostage. Which may be fodder for another story entirely. Point is, we were, and still are stupid. And dive headfirst into things like this.

Jonathan and Brian became quite literally flabbergasted by this mystery driver, who continued to pull into Jonathan's driveway every night around the same time. Another development was that Jonathan noticed that this guy would sometimes get out of the car, which obviously was even more cause for alarm. This said, the two of them decided that one night, they would camp out and wait for this guy. The two of them took this so far, that they stayed in Jonathan's truck that night around the time that this person would drive up in front of Jonathan's house. I can imagine that the two of them became really bored for a while, waiting for this guy to show up. They probably wondered if this guy would show up at all, given the trouble that they were going through in order to find out about this guy.

He showed up. Right on time, like clockwork, the guy pulls into the driveway. He must have thought that everyone was in bed like normal, obviously not noticing that my two esteemed colleagues were waiting very patiently for him in the back of the truck. The guy even got out of his car, as Jonathan suspected that he'd been doing. They jump out of the back of the truck, screaming at this guy while they jump into the cab and peel out after this guy who has jumped back in his car and done the same. They chase him back down to the outlet of the road, past Jonathan's sister’s house, and through the neighborhood. Eventually, during this high speed chase, they do lose the guy into the night.

After that fateful night, the guy didn't show up again for around a week. But yes, he did eventually come back, returning to do the same thing that he'd been during the time before the ambush.

To be continued...

Headlights at Night - Part 1

2006-04-07T07:22:00.000-07:00

A noticeable thing that I've noticed on many of my favorite blogs (Kevin Smith's for one good example) is that they often share many of the greater and more lengthy stories of things that have happened to them or their friends. Many of them are mostly exaggerated to some extent, but the obviousness of that fact usually lends to their credibility. You know you are reading a true story, but the "made up truths" just make it a more entertaining read.

These kind of stories aren't exactly out of line with Southern stories, best illustrated in popular culture by the underrated Tim Burton / Ewan McGregor movie "Big Fish". That movie illustrates how the heritage of story exists in the South really well. In fact, its a pretty accurate depiction of the feel and atmosphere of where I live. Again, obviously many things are exaggerated, but that's just how stuff goes down around here. Everything is just slightly surreal in nature.

So anyways. Point of this is that I'd like to start sharing some of these surreal experiences. In fact, at least once a month from now on, I am forcing myself to "debut" one on here. The first I'll share isn't my own, however. It is, byfar, the funniest story I've ever heard in my life. Like, ever. I won't do it justice telling it to you here. The only person who can do that is the guy who participated in said story, my friend Jonathan.

Part of the story of his retelling of this story even adds to the humor of it. It was in December of 2003 and we were trying to see "Return of the King" on opening night, but we had missed the first showing because it had quickly sold out. However, Brian and his girlfriend had made it in due to an Act of God, where a couple had decided they didn't want to see it and sold their tickets to him. So this left us, ungrudgingly, out in the literal cold where we had to wait until the next day to see the movie. The next day on the way back to the theater after having bought some biscuits at Burger King, Jonathan decides to tell us this account of what had happened to him and Brian the past Summer, since our jealousy of Brian having seen the movie the night before was a topic of conversation.

Firstly, I just cannot stress this enough. The way Jonathan told this story at this specific time is a milestone in the history of my friends and I. It's so funny how such a seemingly insignificant point in time can be so memorable and poignant, but it is. He tells us about how that past Summer, neither of them had much to do, and Brian was prone to stay at Jonathan's house overnight quite a few times. We'd often do this, watching movies and playing video games all night after going out and about and committing various acts of tomfoolery. One night, very late around 2:30 am, while the two of them were doing just this, they had noticed a pair of car headlights shining brightly in their window. It stayed for a few seconds, and the car that the lights belonged to turned around and went back where it went from.

Now, for some background information. Jonathan's house is one of two at the end of an old country road that is more or less a dead end. It is so country in fact, that his older sister lives at the entrance of this road with her husband. Futhermore, only around six or seven houses are on this road. Which made the event of this car even more curious.

This didn't just happen on one occasion either. The next night, Jonathan noticed that the lights again shined through his window around 2:30 in the morning. Again, and again it happened. He realized that it had happened five nights in a row, and that something was most definitely up.

.....to be continued....

The Power of Stupid People in Large Groups

2006-04-03T09:44:00.000-07:00

Every time I hear about something like this, it reminds me of the line from Tommy Lee Jones in Men in Black. I forget how it went, and don't really want to look it up, but he basically says a single person is smart. But people are stupid and panicky animals, and you know it.

Every once in a while, I hear about a story that reinforces that. I originally found this story on digg, but here's a samle of one of the original articles.

Five teenage girls allegedly playing a game they learned about on the Internet could face criminal charges after leaving 17 suspicious packages throughout Ravenna.

The first suspicious package was reported around 7:15 a.m. Friday when a passerby flagged down a passing officer regarding a strange box on the steps of Immaculate Conception Church, 225 S. Sycamore St., according to Ravenna Police Chief Randall McCoy. The box was wrapped in gold paper and had black question marks painted on the sides.

The package .. was opened by emergency response officials and was found to be empty, McCoy said.

McCoy said while the investigation was ongoing at the various scenes, a female juvenile and her parent came in to the Ravenna Police Department claiming responsibility for the packages, claiming they were just a joke. A total of five female juveniles - all ages 16 or 17 - are suspected of being involved, McCoy said.

“The girls found an Internet site called Mario Question Blocks which told you step by step how the game is played, along with instructions on wrapping the packages, just to see what kind of response you get,” McCoy said. “This game is evidently being played all over the country.”

McCoy said even though no harm was intended by the girls, they could face criminal charges for their actions.

Yeah, this one pretty much runs the list dry. A harmless and tasteful April Fool's joke pulled by a few witty girls is horiffically misinterpreted by idiotic small-town small-minded hicks. And instead of claiming responsibility for thier own ignorance, they transfer blame to the girls in the form of criminal charges. Whatever the terrorists wished to accomplish by installing fear into our country, this is certainly a huge victory for them. This makes me hate our media as well as our misinformed and uneducated public. It's just a sickening situation.

On a better note, here is the site where they found the idea. And it's a fantastic and hillarious idea. I plan on doing it myself.

Star Wars Chic

2006-03-27T21:22:00.000-08:00

I've always appreciated the lifestyle surrounding aura of Star Wars and all things related and geeky. It's always been sort of an indescribably cool presence that's inclusive to so many people, but so exclusive to that group. What's usually so cool is that somehow, some way, everything can relate back to the core geeky subjects. Subjects like Star Wars, video games, Harry Potter, Ghostbusters, Back to the Future, whatever. Star Wars is simply the nexus and nucleus of the entire lifestyle. It wouldn't necessarily even have to be specifically about that. With that nucleus, it’d always be relevant, mostly funny, and always pertinent to that specific target audience.

I'm thinking of starting a media consortium that involves sort of a collaboration of all things. Maybe a blog, maybe a podcast too. There are so many things that are involved within the Star Wars Chic lifestyle, the content material would be virtually limitless. Thing is, I would want to market and produce it well. I wouldn’t want it to be any fan site, and I wouldn’t want it to come across as some pansy production either. I also wouldn’t want to advertise it and draw in readers or listeners in a haphazard way. If I were to do it, I’d want to do it all out.

I’m basically asking anyone who reads this if they would have any ideas for this, or would be a regular reader or possible contributor of such a thing. If the answer to any of this is “yes”, give me a holla.

Musings on 'The List'.

2006-03-22T21:34:00.000-08:00

I've been idle far too long.

In more ways than one too. I've become too self-serving for my own good in many ways. Due to a lot of stuff going on with work and school organizations this school year, I've felt majorly stressed out at times. Not to the point of exhaustion, but the point where I feel as if I need a lot of personal time. But it's time to put on my big boy pants and stop lying to myself. If I want to be successful and have a clean conscience, I've got to push that aside and continue on being successful without being a wuss and saying I need my own time to do my own stuff.

A few things I need to do..

Stop playing so many video games. I don't feel guilty doing it, nor should I feel that I should. I don't see it as a waste of time, I see it as an appreciation for art. However, I don't think that I should feel as if its a responsibility to play them. I often do. I should just play them when there's nothing better to do and I've accomplished a good set of goals for the day.

Which is another thing I need to do, I need to have a set list every day. I've done this before, but I've fallen away from that recently. It gives me something to shoot for and something to feel darn good about myself for after the fact.

I also want to devote more time to my own projects. I want these things to diversify myself, even if they involve something totally silly and stupid. For instance, last weekend a goal of mine was to put Mentos and Diet Coke together and see for myself the resulting reaction. It was funny as all get out. I'm not going to fully enjoy life if I just read about it and think about what it would be like. I need to actually 'friggin do it. And these things might not be totally pointless either. I think a further devotion to Dirrty Apple would do me a lot of good. I'd love to get into that sort of stuff professionally, and a deep devotion to it could open doors for me.

I should also stop being so self-serving. I need to think about the good of others around me more. So many resulting things come of this that I don't need to explain, especially to myself.

I'd also like to become more faithful. I have been in the past, but don't feel as if I've grown much since then. I am also usually personal about it and don't flaunt it as many in the Bible Belt often do. However, there can't be any harm, and only good in sharing it with those who are closest to me.

That's about it for now. One last thing I'd like to do is to have a definative list of things both constructive and stupid that I'd like to accomplish. Perhaps I can do that in a future post.

Illegal Weapon

2006-03-08T19:09:00.000-08:00

I love Google Video. I had forgotten that I had uploaded this video a while back.

I'll probably be including all of these in a revamped Dirrty Apple Productions site pretty soon in this format, I love this stuff.

I love L.A.

2006-03-07T15:51:00.000-08:00

It's true, I really do. Well, most of it. Much of the town on the outskirts, I could do without as most of it is basically the same anyways. And it isn't the sort of gritty Los Angeles you see in 'Crash' either. It't not even that nice. But as for the heart of the town and the West and North side, I couldn't get enough of it. However, there's no way I could afford to actually live there. But if I could, I wouldn't mind doing so for a period of time.

Many things are true about the town. First off, everyone has something to push. It might be a script, it might be a rap album, it might even just be a character on the sidewalk that they are just trying to get tips for. While the town is mainly centric on the the business of entertainment, it's more about the business of entertainment, not primarily the entertainment itself. However, that's not a bad thing at all. You know how every city has a calling? Pittsburgh and Birmingham are industrial cities. Detroit makes cars. Atlanta has Turner. L.A. makes films. And do it as glam as possible. It's self indulgent. It's slightly obsessed with image. But it's a heck of a lot of guilty fun. It's a faux, yet plausibly magical town and I loved every minute that I was in it.

Play of the Year

2006-03-01T10:55:00.000-08:00

I'm not usually one who falls hard for overly sensationalism news reports, especially from vague local news stations... However, this is amazing. I don't think it can be overstated in any way.

Coming in Two Weeks...Venice Beach!

2006-02-15T10:34:00.000-08:00

Venice Beach
Originally uploaded by agincourtjim.

If you had told me sometime in the past two years that I'd get to go to Los Angeles for free... Well, I'd likely believe you, but it would still thrill the crap outta me.

I'm not all that sure yet about what I'll get to do, as the itenerary for the convention we're attending won't actually be given to us until we actually get there. But I'm sure I'll have time to see stuff like this. Or I'll make it.

Fanboy.

2006-02-13T19:43:00.000-08:00

Let me calmly take you into a rant that I'm likely about to go on. I'll tell you that I am a devout lover of Nintendo. I've owned a variant of some type of every system they've ever produced aside from the Nintendo DS. And I'll likely own one of those before all is said and done. Also, I've loved every piece of hardware and software I've ever purchased from them. I do research my purchases, and avoid crap. But I've been very happy from everything that has thier gold seal affixed to it. Even after thier heyday of the NES and Super Nintendo. I even loved the N64. Playing games like Goldeneye and Ocarina of Time are forever tattoed in my memory.

However, they are beginning to take a path that I don't want to follow.

I love the Nintendo Revolution and the possibilities that it affords. It's capable of wonderful things and engrossing games, and doing so in a new environment that will make all else feel outdated. However, following recent debacles by Nintendo, it's quite possible it will not do this. The Gamecube did not live up to what it could have done. There's no excuse for games such as Smash Brothers or Mario Kart to not be online. There's no excuse for the virtual non-existance of games for the system right now. There's no excuse for the system to have not had a killer-app game since Wind Waker. Instead of focusing on new types of games and new ways of satisfying consumers, they follow the almighty dollar (from thier point of view) and make a million different Mario Party and Mario Sports games. With all that development time and money, a true Mario game and new Zelda game could have been out by now.

It seems doubtful that Nintendo will fully realize the potential of the wonderful machine they've envisioned. At least citing the past few years. There are certain things the company has to do right now. First of all, the new Zelda game needs to come out. Soon. And be damn good. There had better be a good reason we havn't gotten that in the past year. It had better deliver. The Revolution needs to be what it is promised to be and then some. It better be online, it better have great games, it better show us a new fun way to play. And it can. But whether or not Nintendo chooses to actually do it is another thing.

I love you, Nintendo. You've been one of the few constants in my life ever since I was around four years old. Don't force me to outgrow you and force me to lose one of the last true great things from my childhood. Please come back to me. I will take good care of you, I promise.

Marshmallow Cars

2006-02-13T08:30:00.000-08:00

Marshmallow Cars
Originally uploaded by MeghanNYC.

This is soo cool.

I wish we had gotten some snow like this. Actually, if we had, I shudder to think how the locals would have handled it.

What's Going On

2006-02-08T06:56:00.000-08:00

I should probably stop with all of the silly geeky observations and actually make some mention about things that are going on with me right now. I don't mind making those sorts of posts at all, but I do want this thing to keep some sort of direction.

Thing is, it's just the same old same old. I'm taking twelve credit hours and am working twenty hours a week, along with still applying for the title of Renaissance Man. And really, that's the fun stuff that keeps me going. That would include organizing events in my university apartments, captianing a intramural dodgeball team, scheduling speakers for the NMC, helping out with a new podcast on campus, doing a campaign site for Governor Siegleman, and on and on. And I don't want to come across as smarmy in listing all that, it's just motivating to know that I'm actually getting all that done in addition to school and work.

Last semester, all this would have had me kill myself by now due to stress. But I think I've grown since then, since obviously I havn't. Yet.

On a related note, I think I am going to buy some hosting and a domain pretty soon. I'm going to be graduating college in around a year and I'd really like to show off the fruits of my labors to prospective employers. As well as just have a cool site. I may be moving all of this there relatively soon. Or as soon as I get many of those things crossed off the list.

Nuts!

2006-02-07T16:15:00.000-08:00

This was my favorite of the Super Bowl commercials.

Actually, I love all those commercials. Especially the one's that play during the baseball playoffs.

Important Issue

2006-02-03T09:45:00.000-08:00

I'll have an opinion piece in The Exponent next week which I think is very important. I just turned it in and wanted to give sort of a preview of it here. I think this is potentially critically important issue that will play a bigger and bigger role in the next few years.

Personally, I am very middle of the road concerning these sorts of subjects. I am honestly against such ideas as homosexuality and moral looseness in general, but try to remain tolerant and open. Also, I think much debate over such instances in entertainment options is just insane. It's simply entertainment, not real life.

Anyways, here's a bit of it...

Three weeks ago, NBC cancelled its new comedy/drama, “The Book of Daniel”, which followed an Episcopal priest and his dysfunctional family. Reviews from professional critics praised the quality of the show, but outcries from parties offended by the subject material said otherwise. On January 6th, The Huntsville Times reported that local affiliate WAFF had received “hundreds” of phone calls and emails from viewers protesting the show. NBC cited low ratings for the demise of the show, but it is highly unlikely that ratings are the only reason. The Huntsville Times reported in the same article that stations in Little Rock, Arkansas as well as Terry Haute, Indiana pulled the show due to content.

Similarly, the film “Brokeback Mountain” has caused much controversy. The Oscar contending movie, about a secret relationship between two cowboys over the course of their lives, has only recently begun to screen in Huntsville after having been released since early December. Conversely, the film has been banned in various theaters throughout the country, most notably in Utah, where theater owners and other critics are seemingly making moral choices for everyone.

Such is also the case with Florida lawyer Jack Johnson who has recently made headlines by essentially declaring a crusade against video games and those who play them. His extremity in his cause has even led for him to demand in a letter to California Attorney General Bill Lockyer that all copies of certain video games be seized and destroyed. What’s next? Burning copies of Catcher in the Rye or Robison Crusoe?

Ultimately, these sorts of events beg a certain question. How much prominence does the morals and standards of particular sects of society hold over others? Or phrased otherwise, what gives these groups the audacity to choose what is and isn’t “appropriate” for the rest of society which may or may not agree with their particular belief system? Morals and standards are certainly something to be respected and strived for, but are not generally principles which ideally should be forced upon vast populations due to the beliefs of specific sections of them.

Namedropping.

2006-02-02T13:07:00.000-08:00

I like making obscure observations about things that have no bearing, as you'll soon see if you frequently read here from me. For instance, I realized today that I've seen or personally met someone from each of the six Star Wars films.

The Phantom Menace - Ray Park, Anthony Daniels, Michonne Bourriague
Attack of the Clones - Hayden Christensen, Anthony Daniels, Daniel Logan, Jay Laga'aia, Mary Oyaya, Zachariah Jensen
Revenge of the Sith - Hayden Christensen, Peter Mayhew, Anthony Daniels, Jay Laga'aia, Zachariah Jensen
Star Wars - Garrick Hagon, Peter Mayhew, Anthony Daniels
Empire Strikes Back - Billy Dee Williams, Peter Mayhew, Anthony Daniels, Ian Liston
Return of the Jedi - Billy Dee Williams, Peter Mayhew, Anthony Daniels, Warrick Davis

Of course, I'm able to slightly cheat because many of the actors are in multiple films. As for specifically "met", I don't really like to classify that as having simply seen them or asked them a panel question at Celebration II or III. More in the way of actually having sat down and talked with them for more than five minutes. And in that case, the list would include Anthony Daniels, Michonne Bourriague, Mary Oyaya, Garrick Hagon and Ian Liston.

On that thought, Garrick Hagon (Biggs) and Ian Liston (Janson) are two of the coolest guys I've ever met. You'd think that "secondary" players such as themselves would become tired of sometimes-compulsive fans and repetitive conventions. Instead, they insisted that we sit down and talk with them for a while.

My friends and I once made fun of Biggs for going down like a pansy, but no more.

1.21 Gigawatts!

2006-01-31T17:08:00.000-08:00

I love stuff like this.

The flux capacitor is the core component of Dr. Brown's fictional time traveling De Lorean in the popular 1985 movie Back to the Future, its two sequels, and its animated series. We learn from Doc Brown that the flux capacitor "is what makes time travel possible."

.....

Although "flux capacitor" is a fictitious term, the phrase has appeared in more serious contexts. US patent number 6084285 describes a "lateral flux capacitor having fractal-shaped perimeters," the idea being to make a capacitor in an integrated circuit some of whose capacitance exists between two conductors on a single layer (hence, "lateral"). The device is not a lateral (flux capacitor) but a (lateral flux) capacitor.

The amusing thing to me is how that article is written so seriously. And the whole mistique surrounding the flux capacitor itself. Supposidly, if one were to slap one of these puppies onto anything, it would therefore automatically become a time machine.

As a side note, this is one of the most fantastic resources I've ever seen.

Chuck Norris Forever

2006-01-27T08:09:00.000-08:00

You may notice that I've included a Chuck Norris Random Fact Generator in my sidebar now...

Of course, those will go away as soon as the whole "Chuck Norris renaissance" runs its course and the jokes become stale. However, I'm hoping that doesn't happen anytime soon. The constant barrage of Chuck Norris jokes on the Niagara trip last weekend made the entire trip hillarious. They seem to be all the craze around campus as well. You have to wonder how this came to be, really. Most cite the "Walker Lever" on Conan O'Brien as starting the craze, but there had to be something in the air that made it explode and become the collection of catchphrases that it is.

Whatever the case, I love it.

Updated on February 6th!

Surfing around a bit, I found an official response from Chuck Norris himself on this whole fiasco..

I'm aware of the made up declarations about me that have recently begun to appear on the Internet and in emails as "Chuck Norris facts." I've seen some of them. Some are funny. Some are pretty far out. Being more a student of the Wild West than the wild world of the Internet, I'm not quite sure what to make of it. It's quite surprising. I do know that boys will be boys, and I neither take offense nor take these things too seriously. Who knows, maybe these made up one-liners will prompt young people to seek out the real facts as found in my recent autobiographical book, "Against All Odds?" They may even be interested enough to check out my novels set in the Old West, "The Justice Riders," released this month. I'm very proud of these literary efforts.
~ Chuck Norris

That's so cool. Most "celebrities" would either ignore something like that or seek legal action. Instead, he finds it hillarious. But if he didn't, I'm sure someone's spine would be seperated from thier body.

Greatest Weekend Ever

2006-01-22T20:10:00.000-08:00

This past weekend was one of the greatest of my life. More specifically, this past Friday was one of the best days I've ever experienced.

In review, here's what went down Friday.. I went through Cincinatti and saw the Great American Ballpark. I ate in a Cracker Barrel in Pennsylvania. I visited Canada. I saw Niagara Falls. I saw some cool James Bond props actually used in the films. I had the best pizza I ever ate. I saw the greatest hockey game I've ever been to. I had a late night dinner at Hard Rock Cafe. I visited Canada again and "broke in" to Planet Hollywood. I had an even later night stop at a New York bar...

..and that's just Friday and doesn't even include everything that happened that day.

Also, after this trip I have a newfound respect and love for my school. I hadn't experienced such an atmosphere since the basketball team at my high school won the state championship during my senior year. And even that pales in comparison to the two hockey games I saw this past weekend. Paticularlly, one thing that will always stick out on my mind is the team coming over and banging on the glass in front of us after scoring a goal. Once again, I knew right at that momeny, I was in the only place in the world I wanted to be.

Blaame Canada!

2006-01-19T09:52:00.000-08:00

My dad faxed in a copy of my birth certificate into the office not long ago so that I can go across the border into Canada tomorrow. (If you need any prescription drugs, let me know before the bus leaves at 8:00 tonight!) The guy that is organizing the trip to Niagara suggested that we bring three forms of identification along with us to ensure that we could cross over. Our drivers license, social security card, and of course, birth certificate. I had the first two, but couldn't find a copy of the third around here at school.

I am not so certain what all that you have to have to cross internationally as I've never done it before, but I understand that it is a hassle. From what I have heard from friends and relatives, its a relatively painless experience, but all of the stories that I had heard from them were pre-9/11. My boss here at work had been telling me that much of the rules and regulations surrounding the international borders and customs offices had to do with a lot of crazy things that happened in past years. These included things such as Canadians sneaking booze into the country during prohobition, Mexico sending in illegal working families, etc. The thing is, I don't even know what one would have to claim when crossing a border. I should look this stuff up..

Canadian Border Laws

Okay, so I don't know about the legitimacy of that site, but it does prove interesting. So apparently, the birth certificate copy that I have is no good because it might cause identity theft concerns. However, should I want to, I can bring up to 50 cigars and a liter of wine. Crazy.

DVD's Suck

2006-01-17T16:05:00.000-08:00

As I had gotten a lot of new DVD's over Christmas, it hit me that DVD's are beginning to suck. Nay, not beginning. They have been sucking and continuously sucking for over a year now.

Case in point(s):

Spielberg's War of the Worlds DVD. Great movie, but only one shoddy feature. No internal packaging which outlines individual scenes, no commentary, no fishing, no nothing. The only "extra" is an external and shiny box which looks nice, but serves no point other than making the case not fit into my DVD rack.

Batman Begins. The only extras to be had are the trailers. No, I take that back. Trailer, as in one of them. That's it.

Something else that berated me, too. My parents got me Batman, but got me the fullscreen edition. That's allright because my dad got it and doesn't know that I'm such a film snob and really, really hate fullscreen DVD's. I planned on taking it back to Wal-Mart and swapping it for the widescreen edition, but get this: Wal-Mart didn't have Batman Begins anymore in any shape or form. The DVD had only been out for two months at best. What exactly do you have to do to get a normal shelf life these days? Back to the DVD's themselves, they continue to confuse me. The menus are slick and well designed, which leads you to think that some thought and value went into thier production. But why isn't there more to the DVD? Commentary tracks? Deleted scenes? Making-of? Anything? Nope.

I have two theories. Either 1, Hollywood is making everyone think the format is becoming stale and is nurturing everyone to think HD-DVD is "more better". Or 2, Hollywood is trying to woo patrons into loud and smelly theaters and away from thier film consumption method of choice. If we want a quality product, we have to wait many moons for a double-dipped "special edition" of the film package that should have been on the market in the first place.

Either way, the consumer ultimately craps out.

Christmas Grabs

2006-01-11T08:02:00.000-08:00

I've really neglected to post on here in the past while, and for good reason partially. Over the break, I was intent on doing as little as possible. And when I did do something, I was going to do it whenver I wanted without scheduling anything at all. Which had me basically turning into a vegtable for three weeks. But I was a very happy vegetable.

So it's usually the thing to post a list of your favorite items from Christmas, so here goes:

-3.1 Megapixel camera with a 3x optical zoom.
-Lego Star Wars (Gamecube)
-New luggage
-Batman Begins DVD
-War of the Worlds DVD
-The Sandlot DVD
-A new clock
-DDR Mario Mix (Gamecube)

I love my new digital camera so much. I didn't realize how crappy my old one was until I was able to compare the quality between the two. I havn't been able to put the darn thing down, which isn't even really represented on Flickr just yet. I imagine that I'll put some of my favorites on there in the next week. Especially after I come back from New York next Sunday.

As an aside, I mean Niagara Falls in New York state, not New York City. I have been messing with some friends about "going to New York", but of course I don't disclose the whole truth!

Should I?

2006-01-09T10:34:00.000-08:00

I'm seriously considering getting this when I have some extra money come in via my Exponent paycheck. That is all.

For Sale

2005-12-15T09:05:00.000-08:00

Time Warner considers Braves sale

I don't really know how I feel about this. I certainly don't like the strong notion of treating baseball and the Braves like a business, but then I'm not naive enough to know that it isn't.

If this does happen, it will good in a few ways, bad in some others. Good because AOL Time Warner has become a lifeless hunk of business that in all liklihood doesn't give a flying flip about any baseball team that they own. A high-profile Atlanta businessman who is involved in the community and cares for the club would certianly do better. This happened before with Ted Turner. But he's since gone kinda nuts and sold off much of his Atlanta assets. I'd much prefer it go to a sole owner like him or someone like Arthur Blank rather than some lifeless group or corporation any day.

On the other hand, it would suck because that would indeed finally signal the end of the Turner-Atlanta era. Ever since he lost control of his company, that aspect of the town just dropped down a steep incline downhill. I visited the Turner Studio Office this past spring, and could definately tell that it had turned into a run of the mill corporatized operation. The only aspect of the place that had any individuality or spunk was the Williams Street / Adult Swim building across the street from the place. But then, those guys are so nuts, no one wants to mess with what is going on over there.

In a perfect world, Ted Turner comes back and buys the ballclub back with his own personal assets. But then, most of everyone who worked for him and was loyal to him when he owned half of the town has lost thier jobs and moved on due to the monster that is AOL. I don't know how the club would feel about having him back, but I am pretty sure that the "Braves Nation" who has been around long enough and is well versed enough in tradition would be thrilled to death to have him back in that position. But then that's a perfect world, and that hardly ever comes about.

I suppose that I would prefer that the Braves are sold off, but like I said, only to a sole owner. And one that will let things continue as they are with Cox and Shuerholtz.

Speak the Language

2005-12-07T09:00:00.000-08:00

Some of my friends and myself have a running joke between all of us. Though we live in Alabama where such things are sometimes present, there isn't a shred of racism or hatred in any of us. And I can say with full confidence that we try our darndest to not let any Southern blood run too rich and let it become present. But the joke is, sometimes it just isn't a good day for minority groups. Especially then they actively promote whatever kind of stereotype may be present about them.

Case in point today.. A gentleman of obvious Indian heritage calls me at the office. His accent is very think and is hardly understandable at all. He's asking for a simple thing, just our website address. Speaking very clearly and slowly, I tell him the URL five times until he understands. And he has a tone of voice like I have a problem for not getting my message across clearly enough to him. He calls back a second and third time asking questions on how to find things, for reasons I suspect that might have something to do with his obviously not having a firm grasp on the English language. Or at least how to understand it and read it, much less speak it.

What amazes me is that this guy is most likely very intelligent. He was a person of importance at an engineering company, so he has to be. And yet he can't communicate effectively, or at least have the foresight to have someone else do it for him. As cliched as it sounds, I wish people would learn to speak the darn language before attempting to do anything like this. Nope, it just wasn't a good day for his minority group. I hope someone of similar descent comes along and proves that stereotype wrong now.

Mason Dixon

2005-12-06T08:17:00.000-08:00

You know what's nuts? In around a month, I'm going to get to go to Niagara, New York. Then around two and a half months later, I'm going to go to L.A. The furthest I've ever been before is San Antonio. With the exception of Washington D.C. and Indianapolis, I've barely even left the South before. Indianapolis isn't really that far North of the Mason Dixon line because they still serve sweet tea in thier Cracker Barrels, and Washington doesn't even know if it is in Virginia or Maryland anyways.

The Niagara thing came about because of a freak occurance, really. I was acting the fool with some friends and was told about it in passing from one of them. Our Student Government Association is going to take everyone who wants to go to see our hockey team play Niagara University, which accounts for it, I suppose. Honestly, I don't care too much for the game, even though I like hockey. I'm just going to be going somewhere I hadn't been before. And oh my goodness, can you imagine how cold it will be there in the middle of January? Crap!

Things are nuts otherwise right now. It'll be fine as soon as next week when I am finished with all of this finals mess.

Edit: I forgot to mention the 501st event I was lucky enough to be a part of this past weekend. You may have noticed some of the pictures I have in my Flickr account, which should tell enough. One of the other guys who was there posted his pictures here if you'd like to take a look.

Think About This

2005-11-29T19:59:00.000-08:00

That lady who lost her wig in the Wal-Mart lobby is now our national celebrity of the moment. Fear for us. Fear for us.

Nice Break

2005-11-28T19:51:00.000-08:00

The break was very nice.

For a few days, I didn't have any deadlines to meet, any papers to turn in, or any reason to not stay in bed and sleep in. That in itself was worth the entire break. Other than that, I didn't do much at all. Which is just fine, seeing that's all I ever intended to do in the first place.

However, as much as I didn't want anything at all to happen, a few things did indeed happen anyways. Friday, I went shopping for Black Friday. Not anything serious, just a stop at Wal Mart at 5:00 in the morning to at least take part in it. It was fun in that it was like being a part of those crowd scenes from the new version of War of the Worlds. Saturday we did some more shopping, but that was for more or less just getting out. My dad somehow scored with some stocks, so my my mom finished her shopping and took everyone out to eat with "money as no object", which was very nice.

Sharla and I also got some preliminary engagement pictures taken, which turned out great. You should be able to take a look at those via my Flickr link.

My Only Son

2005-11-21T14:11:00.000-08:00

So, I saw the new Harry Potter flick over the weekend. However, that isn't really what I'd like to talk about. But as a side note, I very much enjoyed it. I'd say it is my second favorite behind Prizoner of Azkaban.

But on from that, one thing that very much interested me was the Superman Returns trailer. First off, the fact that this film actually has a trailer now is utterly amazing. The movie has been in development hell for over a decade. If you are a Superman nurd like me, it may or may not shock you to be reminded that this film actually started development while the Death of Superman storyline was fresh on everyone's mind. As for the trailer itself, I heard people gasp and cheer as it played to a packed house waiting to see Harry Potter. Gasp and cheer. As if they could not believe this film is actually going to be released soon and as if they could not possibly keep how they felt about it under wraps.

Superman and Clark Kent are eternal. Spider-man and Batman may be cool, but they are arguably flavor of the moment sort of heroes. While they live thier lives as Peter Parker or Bruce Wayne and become thier respective alter-egos in thier after hours, Superman is first and formost Superman. Clark Kent is both a front, and a true representation of who he really is. In reality, Superman is the everyman. He is just doing what any responsible citizen should do, given thier skills. Thing is, he just has more skills than most, and duly puts them to good use. Clark Kent is his way of remaining the everyman and not becoming some sort of deity, as naive individuals would place him as. Although he's uniquely gifted, he remains what each of us should aspire to be and can achieve. For example he says in the original, "I never lie, Lois". He's kind. He's civil. He's generous. He cares for his fellow man and lives to serve others. Anybody can do that. You don't have to fly to be able to.

Our society needs Superman right now. Although he doesn't exist, he is a contemporary representation of what our society is lacking and should aspire to be. Our society is extremely solem right now. Think of all of the depressive things that have happened in recent times, following 9/11. Despite the over-achieving claims of our "elected" officials, things are on the slow decline. All things. And things don't look much better, either. There is no source of hope, no source of a light at the end of the tunnel, nothing to grasp upon which we hope to achieve. Admittidely, religion does this for many, but it is not as universal as it should be. While Christianity and related branches and sects of it serves as universal, the valued freedom of choice in our society has sadly lessened many of its universally useful ideals as a side-effect. Superman serves as a politically correct and universally acceptable avatar and representation of what should be presented by each and every individual. He's the light, and the hope of what we can aspire to be.

The parallels this presents is summarized very nicely by Marlon Brando in the new trailer:

"They can be a great people, Kal-El, they wish to be. They only lack the light to show the way. For this reason above all, their capacity for good, I have sent them you... my only son."

When you consider the modernized borrowing from Christianity from that, its application is very clear. Superman is that same source of hope as the same "hero" from that narrative. Not that I'm arguing that Superman is a form or representation of our Lord. Nor that he should be held in the same regard. I'm simply saying that he does not have to be argued in the courts as seperated from the state. And that he can represent the same ideals that we should hold true and self-evident.

(This actually turned out pretty good. I may edit it some and submit it as an opinion piece to the Exponent.)

Content vs. Design

2005-11-17T08:20:00.000-08:00

I havn't really been too sure exactly what I'd like to do with this blog at all.

As for design, using a pre-designed template is so not me, but in a medium where the message should be the main thing, I really hate to do anything too flashy. So come to think of it, I don't mind too much. I just don't want it to be lost in suburbia just like everything else that looks like everything else. As for content, I think I'd like to let it remain hanging loose. I do realize that the only blogs that actually grab anyone's attention are those that belong to someone who is uber-popular or retain some sort of main focus like technology or Washington. But then again, I don't really care if it doesn't become too popular.

To be honest, I think "blogging" as it was when I had a semi-popular blog is passe now. Its ethos and credibility has been killed over by all these guys who want to pretend that they have a journalism degree and supposid inside sources in Washington. One cool thing about going to school for CMC (Computer Mediated Communications) is that I can stay on top of these sorts of things. I think the big thing now is social networking sites like Facebook and, unfortunately, MySpace. Sad thing is, as I had talked about in an earlier post, they don't allow for much freedom in terms of content and design.

So in stuff that matters, I'm going to go see Goblet of Fire this weekend if all goes well. Hopefully it will fit in nicely before the Iron Bowl starts and there will be no conflicts there. And if you aren't an Alabamian, don't bother even trying to understand the implications of what I just said.

Industry This.

2005-11-15T13:31:00.000-08:00

You know something that bugs me somewhat? Things that are called "industries". For example, the "adult entertainment industry" or the "import cars industry". Neither are such. The only type of thing that involves an "industry" are sweathouses with those seven year old Malaysian girls who are being whipped into making those obscenely stupid Bratz dolls you see at Wal-Mart.

That is all.

Pray For The Future

2005-11-15T09:14:00.000-08:00

I've always been sort of condescending upon MySpace pages. I hate them. By nature, they always look terrible and make your eyes bleed from your retina. I know that sometimes content can overcome lacking design, but I also know that when that happens, the design is usually minimalistic. But as you probably know, the content on MySpace isn't exactly Hemingway either. Even if you somehow manage to pull off something nice and convincing, your ethos isn't exactly credible because of the reputation and history of other users of that service.

I always thought I was one of the few who noticed this, but hopefully I won't be for much longer because it's hitting the national scene now. Yet another rich white girl had been kidnapped, but this time we had exact proof of just how dim-witted she is via her MySpace profile.

From Sperro News

Now yes, I realize all of the details of the story and what happened beforehand. Which was sad and regrettable, of course. And I won't pass judgement on anything as I refuse to be an irrevelant talking head. But I'm talking about this in a broader context, not specifically in terms of this incident. It goes to show how terrible our consumption and production of information is right now. The media continues to focus on soap-operatic stories like this, and the consumers of which are obviously just as stupid as they are expected to be.

I did some digging around and discovered thier respective profiles which are here and here. Look for yourself. This is the future of our country, apparently. This is how they communicate, speak, see visually. And now they are a part of the mass media that created them.

I know this post will come across as harsh, but believe me, it's only as harsh as the truth of the matter.

Not obsessing.

2005-11-14T07:38:00.000-08:00

This weekend was really crazy and I needed it pretty badly.

Friday, Sharla came over to stay the night with Julie and we went to the hockey game that night. As noted by a bunch of people already, I got to ride the zamboni during the second break at the hockey game. It wasn't that big of a deal to get on it either. All I did was basically ask if I could and I got on it. That's it. Thing is, you have to know who to ask and when, and I think I'll just keep that to myself for future reference.

Saturday brought "Novacon" at the Holiday Inn next to the mall. For the few weeks leading up to it, I thought it would be really sort of nerdy. This wasn't exactly Celebration 2 or 3 we were talking about here, so I expected sort of the, um, "lesser" geeks to show up. And to a point this was true, but not nearly as bad as I thought. The 501st were the real reason I came, and they never cease to impress me. They are always honest and upfront about thier obsession. One guy who was a covert ops trooper even came out and said that they weren't like some fan club that obsessed over small details, they just like being stormtroopers. Which is always cool. I talked to that same guy about making the armor and joining the 501st, which doesn't seem like that big of a deal as I thought it would be, but is still something I don't really need to spend over $1,000 on right now.

Even though I'd love to.

In Your Face!

2005-11-08T07:18:00.000-08:00

I don't really intend for this to be some sort of uber-political blog. I guess I am just interested in stuff like that since this would normally be the time of a mid-term or Presidential election. Plus baseball is over with and there isn't really much else interesting going on in the public sphere right now..

I should go ahead and state before I get into this that, contrary to what you may have gathered from my previous quotes, I'm very middle of the road. Although I do lean left and liberally on many things, there are a few things I don't really care for on the Democratic agenda. And I'm both smart and naive enough to know that I don't really belong in any paticular third party because, well, they never win. They are all nice and fuzzy and serve a good purpose and all, but thier candidates never win. That said, I don't really care to align myself with either third parties or the major two parties, although I do vote kinda liberally most of the time. But I'd never vote for a Paul Hubbard kind of guy (if you are an Alabamian worth your salt, you know of what I speak).

...but anyways.....

I went out to a debate between the UAH College Democrats and Republicans last night, which was very cool. At UAH, it's always hard to pull a crowd for anything that doesn't involve free stuff of some kind, but there was a big crowd anyways. Hopefully, I can remain objective about it because I'm at least close to middle of the road. But the Democrats cleaned house. Nearly every point they made was backed up by statistics, quotes, and polls. Everything the Republicans had to say was initiated by stuff like "Well, my mom said.." or "Oh, well my postman said.." It got pretty pathetic about an hour into it, especially when it came to a question concerning the media. One of the Republicans (who is normally a very strong and bright woman) mentioned that she didn't want our country to get to the point where we would burn books. But then a Democrat commented that they did just that when they burned Dixie Chicks CD's. I can't really do it justice because you would have had to heard it in context, but it was just one of those "IN YOUR FACE" type of moments that just owned.

I tried to be pretty vocal without actually being vocal during the debate. Because in my opinion, in public discourse like that, it's the civic duty of the audience to respond in some way to give another type of feedback to the main speakers. Most of it was directed towards many of the lackluster points the Republicans made, which rubbed many of them the wrong way. Tough. If you can't do your homework enough to even hold your own without looking completely ridiculous in a public forum like that, you deserve to be slightly ridiculed.

I wish we had more of those. I especially wish that we would have more which would be more open and involve the audience more. They are a lot of fun.

Rock The Vote!

2005-11-06T19:47:00.000-08:00

So, I've been really getting caught up in watching The West Wing lately. I have hardly watched any TV shows on a regular basis at all in the past few years, but I've gotten hooked on the show. Although I know I'm in the minority because I really enjoy the new episodes about the new campaign over the old episodes that just focused on the in-house President. The older ones are still enjoyable, but don't really have the same vibe that I like.

Or it could just be that I'm biased because Hawkeye is running against Bail Organna.

I sat down and watched the live "debate" episode tonight too and was pretty impressed. If it were a real election, I'd vote for Jimmy Smitts / Matt Santos. But since it's just a show, I have to say that Alan Alda completely owns the show nowadays. It hasn't been as obvious as it has lately, but it's becoming more and more apparent that his charecter is the "heel" that is the villan of sorts. I suspect that the writers want to portray him as a Republican candidate not unlike Bush because he comes across as a highly strung sort of politician that is just in the game for his own interests. Santos on the other hand seems genuinely sincere, although he doesn't really know his PR very well.

But ohboyohboy, Alan Alda is such a good actor. Even in a live performance like that, he makes me hate his charecter, even though I love him as a person and as an actor.

Petition of the 2,000

2005-11-04T11:33:00.000-08:00

Ever wonder what 2,000 looks like?

All Hallow's Eve

2005-11-02T09:50:00.000-08:00

I should probably mention everything that happened on Halloween before it slips away too quickly.

That was one of those nutty days that sort of defines the college experience. At least in my loserish geeky kinds of ways. Some friends and I trick-or-treated every door in the entire housing complex. Well, at least all of those that had the names of girls on the door. It just seemed kind of odd for a grown guy to ask another grown guy for candy, but certainly not a girl. The funny thing is that everyone took it seriously, and we made off with almost an entire plastic pumpkin full of stuff. So let it be said, there's no harm in trying.

I also felt sort of out of place since it was Halloween and I wasn't rolling someone's yard. So we did the next best thing and rolled someone's common room. Which seems totally stupid, but was a whole lot of fun anyways. I'll have to post the pictures on Flickr later to do it justice.

In other campus news, I thought about going to see Batman Begins at the ACE event tonight, but bleh. It's been on DVD for nearly two weeks now. It would have been great if it were around a month ago. So bleh.

I Guess This is Growing Up

2005-11-01T07:34:00.000-08:00

It's alright to tell me what you think about me
I won't try to argue or hold it against you
I know that you're leaving you must have your reasons
The season is calling and your pictures are falling down

...

But everybody's gone
And I've been here for too long
To face this on my own
Well I guess this is growing up

So apparently, last week I started a great fuss with a lot of people. A lot of people who supposidly don't take thier medium so seriously, but seem to have nothing better to do than to constantly ridicule any subject that crosses thier path.

Before I go any further, I should probably state that these people are online via a messageboard and really have no bearing on anything to me. At least not anymore. It's not all of them either, because many of them are very fine folks that I'm glad to know. But the majority are surreal and condescending people who have no relevance to anything, even themselves.

That messageboard was a part of my life for five years, because it was a sounding board of my peers in my generation. At a time, we weren't at all dissimilar at all. They were the people I would have liked to hang out with when there wasn't anyone there who "got" the kind of geeky lifestyle that we were a part of. But after a while, I started to feel like someone who graduated college but couldn't find a good reason to get out of student life on campus. We grew apart. While thier focus seemed to not be entirely on anything in paticular other than ridiculing others and talking about anything as long as it didn't involve substance, I grew up and enjoyed things that actually meant something.

I'm not worried about that board or the people in it anymore. It was a part of my life at one time and helped me to grow, and now I've grown away from it. I just think it's a sign that I've risen above the muckity muck and have grown from my peers. It's not that I'm not part of that "geeky lifestyle" anymore, it's just that I've graduated from a level of it and have decided to make my life mean something rather than petty insult-throwing, obscurity and bickering.

Look What You've Done

2005-10-31T08:50:00.000-08:00

If this had happened a year ago, I probably wouldn't have cared. But since I had a Government class last Fall that taught me just how much power the U.S. Supreme Court has right now (it's actually kinda scary), it has a little more meaning to me. I'm very glad that Miers withdrew her nomination, as she was just a fortunate daughter of the Bush administration with no real experience. I think the new guy will be fine, however. I lean to the left myself, but I don't really categorize myself as anything. I disagree and agree with all the parties usually pretty equally.

It's also kind of nice to see 'Bush and Friends' in so much trouble over the past week, as really, they're getting worse and worse. I hope everybody that voted Bush in and also thinks that Adam and Eve rode to church on dinosaurs is happy with thier choice. (I know, that's funny isn't it? It's Tina Fey's.) I also think it proves how ignorant the public has really become. We were given fair warning in the first four years as to exactly how bad the administration really is, and we seemed to find it fitting to give them a second chance anyways. Not only is the country not going to be in the black, like, ever again.. Not only have we lost over 2,000 guys in a venture that's based on false pretenses.. (see under Libby, Scooter & Rove, Karl) Not only have hundreds died in New Orleans because of ill-prepared disaster relief that was supposed to be beefed up after 9/11...

I mean I could go on. Certianly, a wild night with an intern seems trivial compared to all that.

Halloween Party

2005-10-28T08:43:00.000-07:00

In other news, we had a really great Halloween party last night here at school...

There are a ton more here too.

Braves in Review

2005-10-27T10:06:00.000-07:00

So now that baseball is done and over with since the White Sox have won, I assume that the time is right to do a postmortem for the Brave's season. I'm not ashamed that they didn't make it deep into the postseason again, in fact I'm quite proud that the streak continues, again with a completely different cast. I just hope that the guys who were rookies this year, who won't be rookies next year, continue to be a part of said cast for a very long time.

So here's a rundown of the games that I attended this year:

July 27 vs. Washington - This was a day game that had a suprisingly good crowd, although not really near sellout capacity. The Braves had beaten the Nationals the previous day, and were now one game ahead in the standings. This was also a huge game as it was Jeff Francouer's double home run game. As expected, I was able to sneak down from my horriffic seats to near the left field after the fifth inning as well. I've since come to the conclusion that Turner Field ushers don't really care about this if you aren't taking someone's seat and do it at least after the fifth inning.

July 28 vs. Washington - The Braves won this one as well, although the high point of this game was getting to sit very near home plate. Around fifteen rows back actually. I hadn't sit that close in a long time, and it was a big thrill. Night game as well, I don't get the chance to see those very often as I live around five hours from Atlanta.

Oct. 6 vs. Houston - The seats weren't as great, and I wasn't able to scoot down either because it was a sellout. But that didn't matter as it was Smoltz. vs. Clemens. Something I'll never forget as long as I live. Granted, that was the only game of that series the Braves won, but it was darn special. I've never seen a crowd get into a game like that in Atlanta. Even though the Braves got put out by the Astros, that one game redeemed the entire season for me. To hear the ovation for Smoltz striking out the side or for Kelly Johnson going yard against Clemens was that of hearing the ocean for the first time. You knew at that moment that you were in the only place in the world you wanted to be at that very minute.

Hurting Bad

2005-10-25T13:30:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I had talked about how I was going to go to counseling for some help. I never really got around to it because by the time I was scheduled to go in, I was feeling much better. That's mostly attributed to the fact that Sharla came to visit me right after the time that I was supposed to go, so I felt like there was really no need of my going anymore. Here it is around two weeks later and I feel worse than I did at that point.

I don't know what it is, it's partially what I was talking about earlier today. Mostly because absolutely nothing seems to be going my way at all, and I am really losing grip on myself. I just really have no clue how to handle it or myself. The only time that I am ever truly happy is when I am vegged out in front of a non-class-related book or the TV. Or asleep. And afterwards, I feel guilty that I'm not doing things that I should be doing. But I can't do those things. I can't concentrate on anything. Over the past month, during my inability to cope with all this, my attention span has gotten shorter and shorter. And I become increasingly frustrated about it, which causes everything to build upon itself.

Unfortunately, my time that I'm supposed to come in for counseling isn't until over a week from now. By which, I'll probably feel temporarily better or my explosion point would have already occured. And I know it is, I can feel it coming and I know there isn't much I can do about it other than hope I won't completly self-implode.

Not The Same

2005-10-25T09:15:00.000-07:00

I'm often envious of myself in the past. I always see the me of three or five years as a "better" or more "fun" person than I am today. But I think I've moven on from that and have seen that's just not the case at all. When I thought that those times were better, I probably just did it for nostalgia reasons and couldn't really find a firm grasp of appreciating what today has.

Those times were trivial anyways. I thought social problems were the end-all-be-all. I thought because I had trouble with friends or never seemed to be fully understood or accepted, I was a total loser and let myself always become deeply depressed by it. That seems so naive when I've got problems today like doing term papers on time and a car battery that constantly goes dead. Granted, I do find problems socially sometimes, but it has more to do with image than being accepted. I don't really wish to be accepted as part of any group, but I wish to be seen as trustworthy, witty, whatever.

Truth be told, I don't even know who I am or even care. I don't think I even did then, I just pretended to so that I would fit in. I've never known my place, nor do I think that I ever will.

You've Been Listed!

2005-10-24T20:34:00.000-07:00

So for no reason in paticular, I decided to make a partial list of my favorite people. Probably because I've been trolling around on people's MySpace accounts and saw similar lists. But I never really cared for MySpace, yet like a lot of the people who use it anyways, and ohboy I don't really want to continue this train of thought...

1. Sharla. Duh.
2. Brian. Because every time we do something, I know I shouldn't. But after we've done it, I'm glad I did.
3. Julie. Because she proves that the Mavericks still exist. And that they are budding psychologists.
4. Jonathan. Whom which guys nights out are incomplete without.
5. Jenni. Because there always needs to be someone to bug and hug at the same time.

I really hate the idea of everything becoming pop-cultured and listed, and yet I've done it here. I justify it by saying this has actual substance. Actually, I'm just annoyed that everyone on that list is out of contact as of the moment.

Hoorah for L.A.!

2005-10-24T13:43:00.000-07:00

I found out last week that I'm likely going to be able to go to L.A. in March, which is of course cool. I'm sometimes ashamed to say it, but the farthest I have ever been away from home is San Antonio, Texas. And then the farthest I've ever been out on my own is Indianapolis for Celebration III. If it works out, I'll be able to go with some of the people with the Exponent, the student paper that I write for on a semi-usual basis. Of course, I'd attend the convention that we'd be going for for a day, or day and a half, but we would have a day to do whatever we'd like. Which would be the other cool part.

It would be way too early to go see a Dodgers game, but right on time to go see the Lakers if I wanted to. But NBA tickets are insanely expensive for some reason, so I don't really know. But rest assured there must be something cool to do there while I visit. So hoorah for Los Angeles!

40 Things

2005-10-20T07:19:00.000-07:00

I've recently begun my blog anew after posting for over four years to the old one. I am probably going to eventually upload the old one into an archive of sorts just for nostalgia reasons, but for all means and purposes, it's gone, and this is here now. Considering that the old one goes back to my 11th grade year of high school, and I'm now a Junior in college, the page needed to be turned anyways.

So, to introduce potential new readers to the blog, I'm going to introduce you to myself in an often-overused sort of way (actually mostly ripped off from Matt of Impending Distractions). So here's 40 thinigs about me you may or may not know.

1. I was born in Tuscumbia in Hellen Keller Hospital.

2. I've lived in Northwest Alabama nearly all my lived until I moved to Huntsville to...

3. ...attend the University of Alabama in Huntsville...

4. ..where I am majoring in Communication Arts and minoring in Computer Mediated Communications.

5. I want to be a web producer (different from a designer) for an entertainment company of some sort after I graduate.

6. The longest trips I've made (so far) were to either San Antonio or Indianapolis.

7. I've never been out of the country, but would love to.

8. I am engaged to the hottest dork in the world named Sharla.

9. We met in Birmingham in the Spring of 2001 on a school trip.

10. I am the oldest of three kids.

11. My family lives in Belgreen, Alabama. Which in connection with Russellville, I claim as my hometown.

12. I have a love/hate relationship with my hometown.

13. I love the laid-back atmoshphere and some of the local features and charecters...

14. ....but hate some of the narrow way of thinking and lack of any real jobs.

15. My first job was working as a "tech boy" at my old county school system. If there was anything to be done about anything technological, I was on top of it.

16. During that time, I attended Northwest Shoals Community College.

17. My second job was a short-lived stint as an unglorified lab assistant at a UAH department.

18. I plan to keep my job that I have now for a long time, I am a web designer for UAH Career Services.

19. It's the coolest job I've had so far.

20. I'm president of the NCRH II Hall Council here at school. It has its moments.

21. I'm also president of the New Media Consortium at school. It has its moments, but more rewards.

22. I write for the school paper, The Exponent.

23. I truly believe in my heart of hearts that The Empire Strikes Back is the pinnacle of all art forms.

24. I attended both Star Wars Celebration II and III in Indianapolis.

25. I buck the trend of Star Wars fans, in that I mostly appreciate it for retro factors, the story, and the fellowship of other fans that enjoy it. Not for wierd reasons like Expanded Universe or RPG's.

26. I've been noted for having a loose resemblance to Hayden Christnensen. (Even by Anthony Daniels.)

27. I've read Lord of The Rings once a year every year since 2001.

28. I can't seem to get my way through the entirety of The Silmarillion. Though I love the parts I can get through.

29. I was best actor in my senior play in high school.

30. My favorite band is U2.

31. One of my other favorite bands is Third Eye Blind.

32. I finally got to see them in a free concert in Decatur on the Fourth of July in 2003.

33. My favorite TV show is Late Night With Conan O'Brien.

34. I have an XBox and a Gamecube and play them religiously.

35. My favorite respective games are Star Wars Battlefront and Metroid Prime 2.

36. I drive a 1997 Pontiac Sunfire.

37. I'd really love to visit Ireland and New Zealand.

38. I have a Star Wars action figure worth around $400. Although I paid $4 for it at the time.

39. For reasons unexplained, I love Tom Hanks movies.

40. Life is infinately wierd, but that's what makes it fun.

Who are you, really?

2005-10-18T09:35:00.000-07:00

It's funny how after you've been at colege for quite a while, some things begin to become more apparant. For instance, how overly seriously some people tend to take themselves. For example, take a certain news editor (please). (S)he tends to make his or her job much more complicated than it should be, therefore making the process harder than it should be for everyone else. The person is also overly strict for a newspaper at a college that doesn't even have a journalism major, citing that biases should remain out, and yet promotes themselves in thier "weekly newsletter" that they are oh so proud of. What's sad is that the person makes it overly obvious that they are a complete two-face, as they are completely sweet and honest in real life, and a complete ass in thier online correspondance.

I see this happen continually with people who gain some sort of responsibility. Not all, though. Most people who gain responsibility at school are those who can completely be trusted and honestly, you couldn't imagine anyone else doing the job. But then there are certain bad apples who seem to have conned and sweet talked thier way into power. Another example; most who gain some sort of chair or office in SGA. They tend to think that whatever they do, as pointless as it may be, is above everyone else. Anything they do, as useless as it may be, is a service to the students, and they deserve to be put on a pedastal while everyone sucks up to them.

Thank goodness these descriptions only apply to a select few. And thank goodness that they are there. They allow me and others to see what not to do and exactly how not to carry ourselves. Perhaps that's why they are there, to serve as examples to the rest of us whom are really carrying thier weight.

The Muckity Muck

2005-10-15T20:43:00.000-07:00

I really want to get into photography again, but I don't really have a decent camera. I have my Samsung digital camera circa 2002, which is beginning to show it's age very quickly. When asked for hints on Christmas ideas from my parents, I made no hesitation to let them know I'd love to have a new digital camera with a really high pixel count. The camera that I have now is good for snapshots and such, but not for anything else really.

So, I also realized something funny about Huntsville this week. Actually, a lot of things. This is one very odd town. There is no middle class. In fact, if it does indeed exist, it only exists within the school here. One half of town is the literal Ghetto and the other half is Engineerville. Much was to be made of a "social divide" in New Orleans when it sunk, but that't nothing compared to the rift that would be revealed if a disaster were ever to occur here. It's funny how it works too. All of the poor and the muckity muck live within the town in the valley created by the surrounding mountains. The rich live on those mountains. I like it here, but the social divide seems to be widening more and more over time. I doubt I'll stay here for a very extended period after I graduate.

Going Nuts.

2005-10-11T08:20:00.000-07:00

I've recently been thinking of checking myself into the counseling office here at school. I don't think that I'm going crazy or anything (just yet), but the stress of things around here is beginning to be too much. Work isn't a big deal, classes are bearable (and sometimes even enjoyable), and the two and a half clubs that I'm in are usually minor trouble.

But the combination of all of those things, and the stress from the clubs in paticular, is getting to be too much. It never was really that much of a problem before, and I've never really felt in over my head. It's just that being pulled in so many different directions, especially from people in organizations who think that just because I'm supposidly responsible they can pile everything they should be doing on me. It's a pretty hefty load of a bit of going crazy.

I think the only thing I'm doing wrong is not handling it right. Hopefully I can get some help with that. Like, real soon.

No Crying...

2005-10-02T14:19:00.000-07:00

If a young man's fancy turns to love in the Spring, surely it turns to baseball in the Fall. Here are my picks for the playoffs..

ALDS
Yankees vs. Angels
Red Sox vs. White Sox

NLDS
Braves vs. Astros
Padres vs. Cardinals

I'm going to take the Angels over the Yankees. Other than Rivera, I don't think the Yankees have anyone that can stop thier bats. Vladamir nonwithstanding.

The Red and White Sox is a little harder to call, I think both of those teams are on par with each other. I am not sure who will take that one (I hope it's Boston), but I'll go out on a limb and say that it will go five games.

Braves over Astros. The Braves have a better team than last year and the Astros aren't as good as they were last year. Also, I think that the Atlanta rookies are just cocky enough to not care that Clemens and Pettitte are who they are.

The Padres and Cards series is going to be really interesting. On paper, it looks like St. Louis is going to sweep , but somehow something tells me that the Padres could pull a real shocker.

Wake Me Up When September Ends

2005-09-23T10:35:00.000-07:00

The early Fall air makes me think of nothing other than baseball, even if I'm at work and should be thinking of other stuff.

I am not too sure if Andrew Jones will get the MVP for the Braves, since his average won't really be reflective of how great his season really has gone. His average is significantly less than that of Albert Pujols, but I hope that his home run count makes up for that. It's really cool that the fans in Atlanta have started to chant "MVP" every time he comes to the plate. That isn't something that's been heard in that ballpark for quite a while. In fact, Turner Field has turned around it's stereotype quite well this season. It's no longer the non-chalant and ho-hum locale that many sports writers claim it to be. At least not anymore. In the two games I've been to so far this season, it seemed like the old games from the '91 season that I've seen on ESPN Classic.

Part of that is because of the savior of the ballteam, Jeff Francoeur. I was lucky enough to be at a game during the middle of the season against the Nationals where he hit two home runs in the same game. Aside from his obvious talent, the effect that he has on the ballteam and the crowd is something else altogether. Without Jeff, the Braves are like Guns and Roses without Axel Rose. The place just has an atmosphere when he has his game on. It's stuff like that that gets you by in the postseason and I hope that's the case this year.

Heck of a deal

2005-09-22T09:26:00.000-07:00

I've decided that I'm finally going to pick up an XBox tommorrow, I thought this was a timely bit of information. This is what some of the popular video game consoles costed at launch, and what they cost now converted in today's exchange rates. (Some information taken from IGN.) So relatively, I don't feel so bad about dropping a little bit of cash on something nice for myslef anymore. (Something I havn't been able to do in quite a while.)

So anyways..

Atari VCS
1977 - $249.99
2005 - $811.21

Sega Genesis
1989 - $249.99
2005 - $389.67

Super Nintendo
1991 - $199.99
2005 - $282.21

N64
1996 - $199.99
2005 - $242.75

Playstation 1
1995 - $299.99
2005 - $372.01

Freddy Was Right

2005-09-20T09:50:00.000-07:00

I've been riding my bike everywhere on campus lately. I used to think that it would be way too much hassle because of having to lock it and wear a ultra-heavy backpack, but it's not that big of a deal at all. In fact, I'm able to get to places a lot quicker by riding it. Last Friday, I gave myself some extra time to get to work because I thought it would take a little longer on my bike, but I ended up getting to work that early. And I was pumped about it. I don't really think that it was using a whole lot of gas to drive a mile or two every day, but I am sure that it eventually adds up. I've read things that say that you use a lot of gas actually cranking up the car, at least more that you'd realize.

Now if only I could ride my bike to and from campus and home.

Viva Revolution!

2005-09-15T19:51:00.000-07:00

In something that resembles news, Nintendo has finally let loose what the Revolution controller looks like and what it does.

This thing is 'friggin genious. Instead of using traditional periphial controls, it actually interacts with the screen and what is happening on it. Not only does it function as a laser-pointer sort of device, it is highly sensitive and can act as a three dimensional pointer.

Nintendo wasn't kidding. At all. Video games just reached a new era.

Big Spring Jam

2005-09-14T20:47:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to decide if I want to go to this or not. Or at least what night I want to go.

I havn't been to the Big Spring Jam in two years, mostly because they just didn't have anyone good last year. There are some bands that I'd kinda like to see each night, but it's just about a band a night. I had considered getting the three day, but that seemed like excess in relation. There are at least two good ones each night, but yet I can't really decide.

I had been leaning towards Saturday night. But that's only because of the Black Crowes. Everything else is just "bleh". Sunday looks okay because of Better than Ezra, but this is Alabama, meaning the Charlie Daniels Band is always around. After thinking about it just now, Friday looks like the ideal night. I'd like to see Theory of a Dead Man (I think I saw them at the same venue two years ago) and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. And even "Creed - The Sequel" if I can try for two places at once.

Writing stuff out definately helps. That just helped me make my decision.

Stupid.

2005-09-13T09:57:00.000-07:00

I'm in the stupidest class right now.

Well, not stupid for anyone who doesn't know about the subject matter, but stupid for someone who is a Junior in the Web Cognate. We're learning basic html stuff that's covered in the same 11th grade class that I visited a few weeks ago as a guest speaker. And using Microsoft Frontpage to do it. Yeah, it's that bad. It wouldn't be so bad if we were using Dreamweaver, but nooo.

If it wasn't such an easy A, I would have talked to my advisor and dropped this puppy weeks ago.

It's Your Fault

2005-09-10T14:07:00.000-07:00

So, have you noticed how relatively disrespectul and irrelevant many people have become about the hurricane victims? Much ado is to be made about the blame game surrounding who the fault will ultimately be pinned upon, but that same chatter is also part of the said blame game as well. It's really interesting to see how we've really devovled since 9/11. Either that or how reletively irrelevant we can really become if something doesn't involve a politically charged terrorist attack. It seems as if there is no one to directly blame, we run around like chickens with our head cut off until we can find someone to fuss and complain about it too. I'm sure that in New Orleans there are many things that could be fussed and complained about more than who didn't do what and how fast they did or didn't do it.

I picked up my first paycheck this weekend. I'm thinking that I'm going to pick up an X-Box with my next one. I've run out of excuses to not have one. Not that its that I've lost love for my Gamecube, it's just that there are a lot of games I wouldn't mind having that aren't on it. Zelda not being released until later next year pretty much did it in for me, there won't really be anything new and original until then. Just so you know.

D'you get that thing I sent you?

2005-09-09T08:28:00.000-07:00

So, I'm posting from work, which is something that I havn't been able to do in about a year and a half. My last job is the only one I ever had that didn't require the use of a computer, which is one reason I'm glad I don't have it anymore. It was allright, but was basic work that wasn't getting me anywhere. This on the other hand, is, since I'm getting to redesign a site from the ground up in basically the way I want to.

More as it develops...

Welcome Back, Kotter.

2005-09-01T20:01:00.000-07:00

New Blog. New Slate. New Everything.

There's too much crazy stuff going on in the world for me to not comment and vent on. At least, this is a better outlet for doing just that. As for my old blog, spam killed Movable Type. MT was cool, but it was too complicated and vulnerable for it's own good. Blogger has gone past MT in leaps and bounds since I've left it anyways. This cookie cutter template will also have to do until I can whip up something better. But with so much on my mind lately, I can do with cookie cutter for a while.

Unfortuantely, the archives are gone and probably will remain gone. I at least have it backed up on my hard drive, but that was still over four years of my life. Perhaps I can find a way to transfer MT entries to Blogger some day.