The Cool Kids Call it a "Blog"

"This is The End. My Only Friend, The End."

2005-08-14T17:58:00.000-04:00

This is a bittersweet entry for me today. You see it is now time for me to say good-bye to Blogger and thusly this original blog. I am going to miss "The Cool Kids Call it a Blog," but I'm moving on to bigger and better things. Today I finished putting the final touches on my nuclearnuisance.net homepage and WordPress setup for my new blog ("Jeremy's Blog of Love".) I'm excited because I will be able to do more using WordPress than I was able to do with Blogger as well as creating and displaying more content than I have the ability to do right now.

So first off I want to thank you for following my little rants, raves, stories, and nearly constant mention of dead guinea pigs. I'm so happy and privileged to have as many followers as I do. Secondly I wish to invite you check out the new site at http://nuclearnuisance.net. It is a little rough around the corners right now, but I plan on working on it when I get some free time so that I can clean it up and make it more pretty.

Thank you for following my life, and I hope to see all of you at my new site.
Jeremy

This Post Goes out to Ryan

2005-08-05T00:12:00.000-04:00

So I was hanging out with Ryan and B today (happy anniversary you two) and Ryan said to me, "Why aren't you posting on your blog anymore?" I gave him a lame excuse saying that I didn't think anyone was reading it, but apparently Ryan checks it like a bajillion times a day while at work How was I to know? The real reason is that I'm really close to getting this blog moved over to nuclearnuisance.net. Yeah, I won't have all the neato stuff in place, but I will have a better site that is my own.

So what has been going on in my life besides that? Well I beat Half-Life 1 on Tuesday. I was so proud of myself. It had taken quite awhile to get there and I finally did it. The game is awesome and that is even though its graphics aren't breath taking like modern games. I really enjoed it (and can easily see where Halo copies it and where it improves upon.) I'm currently working on the Blue Shift expansion for Half-Life 1. After that I may need to break down and get Half-Life 2 if I can afford it.

That's the other thing. Rita and I are taking a trip to London in September and I just looked at my credit card. I'm so po'. I need to curb my spending in a rather serious way if I'm going to be able to buy a house a year from now. I originally thought that I could afford a house with a yard and stuff, but now I'm thinking that I might need to settle on a townhouse or really nice condo since the housing prices are so insane. The thing that worries me though is that the housing bubble will burst and then I'll be stuck in a place with a loan that is over priced on a place I didn't want to live out the rest of my days in. I can see why many people are starting to prefer renting to buying right now.

Lastly, take a look at this post on The New Wisdom concerning free will. I am on the side for free will but I am quickly learning that almost everyone else on that thread is a computer programmer that likes to think everything is a program. So swing by and please give me a little support. Please. I'll be your best friend :)

Pot Luck #4: Catching Up

2005-07-24T02:16:00.000-04:00

Well I am starting to get/make free time for things I need/want to do. So let me fill you in on what has been going on in my life.

Light at the end of the Tunnel:
The last couple weeks have been rough on me. Between work and school I feel like I've been living in a bubble away from the rest of the world. Fortunately I really turned the corner on both this past week. Several of my things have tested out aok and even though I still have a little bit to go my spirits are high. In fact with all the overtime I've been banking I shouold be able to take my vacation with Rita without having to use any vacation time. Extra time off for me, w00t!

London:
So Rita and I are finally getting ready to take our trip to London. We bought our tickets the day before the second wave of "bombings" took place. That hasn't convinced me not to go, yet. But I did post a poll at The New Wisdom asking, "Would you go to London now?" Stop by and make a vote. I don't think you have to register to do that.

Cars:
Damnit! Ryan went out and got a new Jeep long cab this past week (which is very sweet. It actually has leg room!) and then I find out today that Jeff went out and bought a new Chevy Colorado pickup! I just plunked down $700 on my car for new tires and other maintenance things, and since she is paid off my car is quite the bargain (not to mention she still runs real good for 76,000 miles). But I want a new car too :( Oh well guess I'll just have to wait until after I get a house.

James Doohan:
I was saddened to hear of James Doohan's passing. He was always one of my favorite characters in Star Trek. Not to mention he was a linguist that helped develop the Vulcan and Klingon languages, was a soldier that landed on Juno beach on D-Day (and was shot SIX times by a machine gun!), and had his last kid at 80! The best thing? He never cheesed out and did Priceline commercials.

iPod, iProblems:
I had bought one of the black and white screen 20GB iPods back in Febuary and loved it. I tried to explain the joy of the iPod to Rita who didn't believe me, until our honeymoon. She swiped my iPod from me and listened to it for the whole 12 hours to and from Hawaii! Shortly after that we both got promotions and raises so I splurged and got myself a new iPod Photo with a color screen and 30GB of space. I then gave Rita my old one (before you get snippy, Rita didn't want the color one, she just wanted the black and white model so there.) Well Rita went on to fall in love with her iPod and uses it everyday. I, on the other hand, got a lemon. The iPod Photo I got must have been defective because eveytime I tried to upload music to it the thing would crap out. It got so bad last month that I stopped trying to connect it at all! So today I went to the Apple store and explained my problem. Net result? A brand spankin' new iPod Photo that is downloading my 10GB of music like a champ right now. I must say I was very pleased with Apple's Genius Bar and their service to me. That alone is worth getting the iPod over other brands of music players (not to mention it is oh so sexy.)

A Call for Happy Thoughts:
Lastly, without getting into too much detail (as it is not my place), I want to ask you to take a minute and send a warm thought out to Ryan and his family. They have had a bit of a rough time this past two months and could use some positive mojo sent their way.

Disclaimer: It was too horking late at night to try and proof read. I'm sorry but you'll have to put up with my many mistakes.

The Crunch

2005-07-17T22:00:00.000-04:00

Well here it is. I have a big deadline at work on Friday and a final in my Database class on Tuesday. I've been coding like the ninja monkeys of yore at work and spent the bulk of this weekend studying for my class. Why is it all my deadlines have to fall in the same week? This happened last year too. Why is that? Are deadlines social creatures that simply want to be around one another? Or does God/Allah/Elvis simply have it out for me?

The worst part is that my class isn't over on Tuesday. It ends the following week with group presentations on our databases that we made. Yeah I know it is going to be a cheesy little demo thing, but it is still another week of hard coding (as opposed to a great Tenacious D* song that I won't mention here as I am trying to cut back on my cussin'. Lets see how long that lasts.) That and I'll probably get another metric ton of smurf at work that will continue my ninja coding monkey pace to make the next release.

The even worst part (OK, I lied just then) is that I haven't been able to do anything other than think loving thoughts towards NN.net I can't wait until I get past this class so I can go crazy on the website.

All this makes me think that Brooke has the right idea. When she grows up she wants to be rich. I used to laugh at her, but now I think she has the right idea. I think I could deal with being independently wealthy. It would fscking rock to be able to just lounge and work on my website all day and do what Tenacious D sing about in the above-mentioned song.

*FYI - The gif on the left hand side of the Tenacious D site is hysterical.

Fantasy Football Team Update

2005-07-13T21:12:00.000-04:00

Ok I have decided to drop most of my previously stated ideas for team names. Frankly I have almost completely decided in favor of "The Johnny Chimpo All Stars." In fact I would have outrightly decided upon that team name if Kevin hadn't sent me this as a possible team logo. I crack up everytime I see that thing.

So it is now between "The Johnny Chimpo All Stars" and "The Fighting Whities" (or a better name if one is suggested.)

Let me know!

Too Long of an Absence

2005-07-11T18:40:00.000-04:00

Wow! A week since last posting! I've fallen behind a bit. Well I'd like to say that I have a lot to report but saddly that is not the case. All I have to report is that I have not yet failed my Database class and I haven't got as much done on NN.net as I would have liked. I am getting closer to where I want to be when I launch, but it is going to take me a little longer so hang in there.

Now for today's content. I have two things that I wanted to share with you.

First off I want to share a site I found back when this whole interweb was new. I lost it for awhile but it always was on my mind and I always wished I would find it again. Today I finally did. Ladies and gentlemen I give you Jesus Dance.

Next up I need a little help from my army of faithful spam bots and dead guinea pigs. I joiined my first fantasy football league today at work and I need a name for my team. A name that strikes fear into the hearts of my many adversaries. A name for the ages. Here are the names I have thought of to date. If you like one of them or you have a better one let me know in a comment and who knows, maybe I'll use it. Oh and you will win, um, a mention in my WEB LOG! Isn't that hot!?

The Johnny Chimpo All Stars

The Blight Beer Guzzlers

The Red Headed Step Children (i.e. what I'll be beaten like)

Jeremy's Jabronies (somebody else has Joe's Jobbers, I don't want to look like I'm copying.)

The Fighting Whities

Oh I Almost Forgot to Mention...

2005-07-01T09:49:00.000-04:00

My first essay is up on The New Wisdom. It is about a trend I have noticed in the press releases lately regarding our reason for being in Iraq. Remember all the other reasons the administration have given us so far have been proven false:

They have weapons of mass destruction (no they didn't)

Saddam had links to al Qaeda (not according to the 9/11 report)

We are here to help the Iraq people (over 8,000 Iraqi civilians have died since we invaded and they still don't have many basic necessities like running water or safety)

Its to spread Democracy (Right. I won't hold my breath for Saudi Arabia and Iran to convert over)

Which brings us to my article on TNW today. Check it out.

Too Many Passwords

2005-07-01T09:27:00.000-04:00

Lately I have noticed a weird trend as I use my computers at home and work. Each time I go to log into a site or account I am suddenly unable to remember my password. I then close my eyes and mentally go through my list of passwords with what I am doing to try and figure out the one I need. This has been getting especially bad at work where I have over four different passwords and logins that I use daily. Throw on top of this the passwords and logins for this blog, my new site, my main email, my Villanova email, my Amazon account, my iTunes account, ATM pin, cell phone voicemail, online banking... ARGH!

Now the security trend is talking about moving towards "pass phrases" of 32 characters or more!

"Its easy! Just take an expression like, 'This is a dumb idea' replace all the instances of the letter 'i' with '1' and voila you now have your new and improved passphrase, 'Th1s 1s a dumb 1dea' and all you have to do is type it in properly with the only visual cue being this '*******************'. See simple! Oh but the real version has to be longer than that."

Sure. Whatever you say pal. (Don't even ask how many times I had to backspace to get the Passphrase typed in properly.)

I just want to have a little wire that I can connect between my head and computer that will linearly go through all my passwords until the right one is found. Is that so hard? Yeah I know that would be a bad idea with viruses and all. I wouldn't want Windows to catch the flu.

I think I just figured out why so many people use only 1 or 2 passwords for everything. Too bad I can't/won't. [Sigh.]

Quickie #5: A Public Service Message for Dogs

2005-06-29T22:39:00.000-04:00

Remember that you aren't just humping a leg. You are humping all the dogs that have humped that leg.

How to Ruin a Superhero Movie

2005-06-27T20:30:00.000-04:00

The following was in response to Duc's current blog about Joel Schumacher ruining the last series of Batman movies with "Batman Forever" and "Batman and Robin". I decided I would set Duc straight in a comment on his blog and I liked it so much (and I'm so pressed for time due to Midterm studying) I decided to share my comments here. [/end disclaimer]

If you are implying that the Joel Schumacher movies featuring neon lights on machine guns, terrible story lines, and lots of glow in the dark paint ruined the last series of Batman movies I would have to disagree with you. It was nipples on the Batman (and later Robin) costume that did the series in. Why you ask? Simple, when one sees Batman's nipple costume you subconsciously think, "What is he going to do? SUCKLE the baddies with his batmilk and that will turn them to justice?" I think we can all agree that is the kiss of death for any superhero. If you are still in doubt ask Marvel how they fared with their CGI Hulk nipples. I rest my case.

Also I would like to point out that it must have been a very strong acid that Harvey Dent was hit with in Batman Forever since it turned Billy Dee Williams into the half crazy, half WHITE Two Face. My friends, I think we may have finally found out what Michael Jackson used that made him white and crazy.

No Good at Secrets

2005-06-22T19:22:00.000-04:00

I am so disappointed with myself. I really wanted to keep Project X under wraps until I had something completed but instead I fell down a slippery slope. By now a good chunk of people know what "Project X" is. In fact so many know it isn't even worth keeping it a secret anymore. The whole blabbing went something like this:

I'll only tell my parents and Brooke.
Oh I have to tell Rita I'm buying the domain.
Damn. Jeff has got to see this.
Well Kevin asked me what Project X is so I had to tell him.
Emily guessed (I forgot how smart she was.)
Look, Duc, Hardydance is back.
Look, Pinto, Hardydance lives.
Hey, spam bot, I've got this project I'm working on...

So I'm sorry to Ryan and everyone else for keeping it from them (though I may have told Ryan too.) But now that I have a bare minimum done I think I will unveil it all official like. Mind you there isn’t all that much there, but I plan on making this totally sweet. It’ll r0x0r your s0x0rs, trust me.

This is going to eventually be the home for this blog, my comic archive, and new comic material!

Now it is your job to harass me if the Progress-O-Meter hasn't moved in a couple of days ;)

Batman Begins. One Word, Awesome!

2005-06-21T08:47:00.000-04:00

Rita and I went to see Batman Begins yesterday. It was fantastic! This was the best made movie I've seen in a long time. The great thing is that they didn't cheese out the back story at all and at the same time did the evolution of Batman beautifully. As Rita put it, "This movie answers all the nerdy questions that you have ever asked about Batman." Absolutely wonderful flick. Go see it!

So what do I rank it? 8.5 bats out of 10. You see it does do a couple things which made me go, "Hey wait a second I don't remember that EVER happening." It wasn't enough to ruin it and if they use this as a new start for a series of movies it will work out all of my issues.

Now for the best part, the previews. I love the previews

Sky High: This is a live action Disney movie that has somehow slid under the radar. It is a highschool for the children of superheros. It looks cute and fun (and has Kurt Russell, Linda Carter, and BRUCE FUCKING CAMPBELL! It can't be bad!)

Serenity: (trailer here) This is the movie release that continues in Joss Whedon's Firefly universe. As a recent discoverer of the Firefly series I am amazed that this show was canceled (I blame Fox's mismanagement.) This movie looks awesome and its about time we had a sci-fi flick that wasn't cheesed out.

Fantastic Four: (trailer here) If you haven't heard or seen anything about this movie it is time to crawl out of your bomb shelter and rejoin society. It looks damn good. But despite that I'm worried that it is going to cheese out the four heros. I am also worried because I heard they were talking about marketing it as, "The feel good movie of the summer." If that isn't the kiss of death I don't know what is! Please don't kill it, Marvel!

The Island (trailer here) Out of all the trailers I saw I thought this was the weakest, but that is ok because I still thought it was pretty damn good. It looks good, but it won't be the end of the world if I miss it in the theaters.

War of the Worlds: (trailer here) Normally I don't like remakes, but this trailer looks like Spielberg knows what he was doing. It looks absolutely awesome! I can't wait for this to come out.

Dukes of Hazard (trailer here) OK, When this preview was starting I rolled my eyes and let out an audible groan. After I saw the trailer I felt like they may have pulled it off. Pros: Jessica Simpson seems to nail the Daisy character (though she should have been a brunette.) Burt Renolds as Boss Hog it seems so wrong and yet so right. Willie Nelson as UNCLE JESSIE, perfect casting! Cons: Oh God not Ashton Kutcher and Johnny Knoxville as Bo and Luke! They seem to play Bo and Luke as punks and idiots. Bo and Luke were not dumbasses! They weren't upper class, but were smart. This is the riskiest move in my view. If it can pull it off it'll be great, but it will be hard for them to do that.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (trailer here) Oh, God, no! Please make the bad man stop! Bring back Gene Wilder! His Wonka can kick Johnny Depp's Wonka any day (Please, God, don't let them ruin another one of my childhood movies! Wasn't Episode I and II enough!? How much does a man have to suffer?)

Big Things Ahead

2005-06-20T08:59:00.000-04:00

I've started work on something bigger and better than ye olde blog. I may have mentioned my plans to a few of you out there, but for all intents and purposes I will simply refer to it as Project X when blogging on it for right now. This will be at least until I have something ready to reveal. Please don't ruin the surprise for others if you know (and believe me, there is more than you know! ;)

An Open Letter to Killian's Irish Red (i.e. Coors Brewing Co.)

2005-06-12T20:20:00.000-04:00

Jeff said in a comment to my last post, "... F Killians for being stupid with their website."

After I read that my first thought was, “That seems a little over the top.”

My second thought was, “Wait a second. If he wants over the top, I can give him over the top!”

That gave me the idea to write an open letter to Killian’s Irish Red (actually Coors Brewing Co since they own Killian’s.)

Dear sir and/or madam,

I am writing you with a most urgent request. It has come to my attention that the website for your deliciously intoxicating Killian’s Irish Red is not Mozilla Firefox compatible. As I’m sure you are aware the Linux and OSX operating systems do not support Internet Explorer and as such when you limit your advertising to Internet Explorer you limit yourself.

Granted Microsoft’s evil Internet Explorer dominates the computer world much like Hitler dominated Europe in the early years of World War II, but you need to think about the crowd you are trying to reach. The typical Microsoft Internet Explorer user is often an uneducated pretentious poser that apes sophistication by drinking Merlot and commenting on how the mixture of highly sweet and dry flavors as well as the syrupy format give one the impression that that they are drinking the nectar of the Gods, when in fact they are imbibing menstrual products. As such, trying to sell beer to Internet Explorer users is like threatening to reveal George W. Bush as an idiot.

Yet there must be a presence out there that is willing to not only frequent your site, but also purchase your product. Those people would be Linux users. You see the average Linux user is still a programmer or hacker at heart. They haven’t sold their souls to the Devil to for a paltry sum in software revenues, but instead strive to create a real operating solution for the masses that above all else is free. Actually the term in full is, “Free as in beer.” This shows the difference between Microsofties and Linux users. Beer. Linux users are creating a work that someday will surly surpass the Great Pyramids, the Mona Lisa, and perhaps even American Idol. They are working hard on their own time and when it comes time to party, they like to party hard as well. And they do it with beer!

Lastly I would like to state that starting right now I will boycott your fine beer until such time as your website becomes Firefox compliant. I still have 21 of the 24 bottles I bought last week so I should be good for another season or two with my tolerance. Then perhaps I will try to the likes of Pabst Blue Ribbon, or Budweiser. Please don’t make me though, my thirst for good beer is in your hands and on your conscience!

Sincerely,
Jeremy

Adventures in Car Repair

2005-06-10T19:43:00.000-04:00

Last night Ryan and I had a small adventure. It didn't concern fixing my car. It was in determining where to meet up. Earlier that day, Ryan and I had decided to meet at the train station in Camden so we could ride home together. Well I called him when I left as planned and started walking towards the station (yeah that's right! I walk several blocks in Camden! Who needs Grand Theft Auto?) Anyway, when I got to the stairs that lead to the underground PATCO station I didn't see Ryan. I thought that maybe he was hanging out at the station (i.e. IN the station.) So I went there and bought my ticket and looked for him at the station.

No Ryan.

After about 15 minutes of waiting I figured he had already grabbed a train and I decided to jump onto a train and head out. You see he works closer to the station and I thought he probably already grabbed a train and left since he never showed at the station.

Apparently Ryan had been waiting at the stairs to the station shortly after I got there and was still waiting there when I decided to head out. So there he was in his nice suit and tie, standing on the streets of Camden, right next to the Methadone Clinic (yeah, Ryan is even more of a badass than myself!) Needless to say when Ryan showed up at his place 15 minutes after I did he was not pleased (What's not to like about hanging out with Meth addicts?)

So my question to you, my faithful spam bots and dead guinea pigs,is this: do you think the phrase at the station means down and in the station or above the station at the entrance?

Oh and Ryan and I got a battery, replace the one in my car with it, and my car started right up. Afterwards Ryan and I got hammered on Schuylkill River water and Killian's Irish Red (website is not Firefox friendly!) while eating Rita's awesome enchiladas.

F.O.R.D. - Found On Roadside Dead

2005-06-08T00:15:00.000-04:00

Well my first database class is over and I am still here at Villanova almost an hour after it let out. You see when I got to my Ford ZX2 (named Sinthia) and tried to start her all she did was dim the lights. It seems that the battery gave up the ghost after almost 6 years of service. Can't really blame it, and God knows I should have given her the ol' 75K mile service by now.

Still this does complicate my life a bit.

First I need to wait for AAA to show up and try to jump me. Hopefully that will be a lot shorter than the two hour estimate they gave me over the phone. If that works I'm in OK shape. Secondly I'm replacing the battery PRONTO! Lastly, if the car won't take the jump I am going to have to take a train to work tomorrow and then beg Ryan to help me out by giving me a lift to Sears or something.

There are two small blessings in this. You see Rita had been hassling me for months to renew my AAA and eventually she just did it herself. Well I would have been absolutely screwed tonight if I didn't have AAA. Thank you honey! You are the best. Love you.

Secondly I forgot my cell phone today. Figures the one day where I really needed it. Well some guy I didn't even know came over to try and help and let me use his cell phone to call AAA and also Rita. He tried what he could but there just isn't any juice left in the ol' battery. I doubt he will ever see this but I just wanted to say thank you for your stopping to help a stranger.

Boy I hope I can get this car jumped. I don't like the look of the battery, I think it may have oozed some of its juices out. If this is like what The Sable did before I got rid of her, then the jump won't work and I'll need a tow.

UPDATE:
10:29 The service guy showed up. The jump worked, but I barely had enough electricity to get home. It kept almost stalling and the lights kept going out whenever the RPM's dropped. Then when I got home I parked it and it wouldn't restart. Guess its the train for me tomorrow. Man I'm beat!

(Hey, Ryan, if you read this expect a call ;)

R.I.P. Transmeta 1995 - 2005

2005-06-05T20:57:00.000-04:00

I was just reading Slashdot (/. for the uninformed) and the top story right now is how Transmeta has sold off it's chipmaking business to a Hong Kong based company better known for its comic books.

The death of Transmeta is sad to me because they made the kick ass processor in my laptop, the Crusoe. It was a CPU with a different type of processor than the x86 and used a software shell (partially designed by Linus Torvalds) to allow the x86 programs to run on the VLIW Crusoe processor. Since the VLIW processor is far simpler than modern x86 processors (i.e less transistors) it required far less power to run allowing for longer battery life. This is what prompted Intel to come out with their Centrino brand of processors.

Good-bye, Transmeta. You fought the good fight and changed the attitude toward power sucking laptop processors (and check out the Transmeta powered OQO. Now that is a hot computer!)

Fear #1: Public Speaking

2005-06-04T17:24:00.000-04:00

For years now I have been deathly afraid of giving presentations in front of an audience. I always clam up and stammer out what I am presenting. The funny thing is that I can ask or answer questions in class without embarassment. I just can't stand up front and speak.

So this week I had two presentations that I had to present. Needless to say I wasn't happy about this. The first was a group presentation on How Cell Phones Workfor a training class at work and the other was for the Cherry Hill Linux User Group on installing Linux on an XBOX.

The cell phone presentation was on Wednesday and I totally messed up. I didn't feel I presented very well and was not very confident. Afterward I was just glad it was over.

Then yesterday I presented the XBOX-Linux and I felt in the groove. I gave details beyond what was on the slides as well as answered all the questions that were presented to me. After I presented I was amazed that I had presented for 35 minutes and I still had my demo to give. When I was done I had presented for almost an hour! Many people even came up to tell me afterward that it was a really great presentation (except for Justin that said it sucked, but I know he was just harrassing me.) It was such a positive experience that it made me think that maybe I am starting to get past this fear.

Pot Luck #3: Memorial Day

2005-05-30T08:42:00.000-04:00

Overtime:
Ah a day off from work. I've been working overtime for over two months so today is a true luxury for me. Since I came back from Hawaii I have been working 50+ hours due to a rapidly approaching deadline. I was getting to the point this past Friday where I just could think straight anymore about computers. A long lazy weekend was just what doctor ordered. Other than two Bar-B-Q's Rita and I have done very little but chill and straighten up the place. Yeah I'm up real early today but I plan on napping later today to make up for it. Besides its peaceful right now.

Looking Down a Double Barrel Shotgun/Dodging a Bullet:
Speaking of overtime. So at work I had two assignments whose deadline was rapidly approaching. I was starting to feel that I would never make the mid June deadline with them. This made me feel like I had a double barreled shotgun aimed at me (one barrel for each assignment.) Well Wednesday I stayed at Work with my co-worker Stacy until 11pm and we got one of the problems fixed. I was so relieved since I felt like I had just dodged a bullet. Well things got better the next two days as I created prof-of-concept solutions for my other assignment. Heading into Friday afternoon I was starting to think that I had just managed to pull off that Trinity move from The Matrix where she kicked the shotgun out of the guys hands and used it herself. I was flying high, until I tried testing a third problem I thought I had finished implementing and discovered Friday afternoon that my solution didn't take certain cases into account. So I didn't leave work Friday in high spirits as I had been earlier that day. Needless to say I'm not looking forward to tomorrow when I'll need to explain this to my manager.

Congrats Kevin!:
Last night was my bud, Kevin's, graduation Bar-B-Q. He now has his Masters in Computer Science. I am really happy for Kevin since he has worked especially hard the past couple years to get this done before his wedding in August and he has pulled it off. Also if it hadn't been for him I may never have gone back to school myself. He was part of the motivation and I tagged along on his coattails to sign up for my first pre-requisite class. He went on to get accepted to Drexel before me and I have gone off to Villanova to get my degree since Drexel was very bastardly to me. One more year and I will be graduating too!

Windows Almost Ready for the Desktop:
I just saw this article by the author of Point & Click Linux discussing Windows XP installation and use from a Linux users point of view. The results are the same as Microsoft's main complaints against Linux. It is a funny read especially if you think that most of the "professional reviews" out there are crap anyway.

An Audience with the Squirrel King:
I am writing this from my balcony since it is such a beautiful morning. I just looked up from the laptop's display and realized the King of Squirrels is on the roof looking down at me with a squirrelly entourage of two other squirrels (one of whom I think is the Prince since he is a baby and only the size of a normal squirrel). Rita had told me earlier this week that his highness had made a similar appearance. Apparently the King is a hands on chap that likes checking on the happenings in his realm. He probably wants to keep a watch on my apartment after threatening me last week. Last week the King didn't take to kindly to my parking under his tree. When I went to drive to work the next morning the King was there and he squeaked several times at me in what sounded like a very angry tone. So I haven't parked under that tree since. I don't want to cross the Squirrel King, I think he might be able to kick my arse! (Please picture myself getting attacked by a giant squirrel and his entourage. My job is done here.)

Quickie #4: The Reistance Grows

2005-05-27T20:10:00.000-04:00

Ryan has just finished installing Debian on his spare computer. He has never used Linux before, and you know what? He really likes it!

Viva La Resistance!!

A Surprise...

2005-05-23T23:48:00.000-04:00

I was not looking forward to going to work today. I had a review, both of my assignments just missed their deadline, and it was a Monday. I decided to not call out sick and went to work expecting to roll with the punches all day. I was doing good with the "punches" thrown my way until my project manager called me into his office in the late morning. The first thought I had was, "Crap, what did I do that was that bad?"

I sat down in his office and he said to me, "I have something I want you to read." He then passed over a single piece of paper. I took the paper and read it.
"I'm getting a promotion?"
"I know this is a little earlier than you were expecting," my manager explained, "But it came through now, congratulations."

So now I am a SENIOR Member of the Engineering Staff. I was working toward getting this promotion near the time I graduated from grad school next year. To get it now is amazing! This is why I love my new company, they don't try to screw their employees every chance they get (unlike my last job.)

Live from the Turnpike

2005-05-22T23:20:00.000-04:00

So here I sit in the passenger seat of Rita's car driving back from a weekend in Long Island. Its nice to have the ability to just sit back on the road home and not have to worry about actually getting there. Don't get me wrong. I enjoy driving to a point, but when you've been at it for more than two hours it gets a bit tedious. Its times like these I wish there was a smart car that could do all the driving or even a really thorough mass transit system. Oh well, you drive the transportation arteries you have, not the transportation arteries you want.

So I got to thinking while I was driving out to Long Island yesterday about how the maze of roads out there are just that, a maze. You spend the majority of you traveling time on a certain chunk of this maze and you get to know it rather well. Then when need or opportunity arise you traverse a little farther out from the familiar roads to less familiar ones. In this way you learn more about the maze we live in and how to get to the “cheese” du jour.

[blech we just past the strong smell of Road Kill a la skunk]

Star Wars: Redemption

2005-05-21T09:50:00.000-04:00

Ryan, Duc and I caught the 6:10 showing of Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith yesterday. I was excited and I was worried.

My fear concerning Episode III was that it would cheese out like episodes 1 and 2. I was afraid it wouldn't explain enough or would contradict too much from the original trilogy and would fail to tie up the previous two movies. After seeing it I have to say that I'm completely impressed with how Lucas answered the questions of how Anakin Skywalker turned into Darth Vader, and it was not ridiculous either. It was plausible and understandable.

The story was complex but even though I knew where it was going, I didn't want to see it get there. I cared about the fate of Obi-Wan, Yoda, Anakin, Padame, and all the other characters. I didn't want to see the inevitable happen.

But once it did, I could never have looked away!

To say I was impressed would be an understatement. I think this episode does not deserve to be grouped with the previous prequels. It deserves to be grouped with the original trilogy! I'm not sure it is better than any of the original movies, but the fact that I am even comparing them shows that Lucas finally found his movie making mojo and treated a prequel right! I plan on seeing this again in the theaters with Rita, and I can't wait!

(As an added bonus, after you see Episode III, and you will see Episode III, go over to the local book store and look at the book adaptation. Read the last 10 or so pages about Anakin's awakening as Vader. It answered the only question I had left after I saw the movie, "How does it feel to be Darth Vader, Lord of the Sith?")

"Carbonite"

2005-05-20T08:37:00.000-04:00

This is the last of the fan flick recommendations. The great news is that I got tickets for tonight's 6:10 showing of Episode III. So Ryan and I are going there and checking out Episode III! w00t! Maybe I'll blog it later, with spoilers (Like Anakin turns into Vader! OMG! OMG!)

To wind up this series of posts I present to you "Carbonite." I will not ruin this guy in advance with a disclaimer but I will say this, it isn't a parody. It is a really well made little flick that I deeply enjoyed (maybe enjoyed most of all the others.)

Runner up films include:
"Cheap Seats"
"Tiny Toys"
"Han Solo: Switch Parody"
"Dark Side Switch Campaign"
"The Yody Years"
"Star Wars Help Desk" and
"Pink Five"

"Figure Club"

2005-05-19T18:12:00.000-04:00

"Figure Club" is a fan film that somehow combines the anti-consumerism philosophy of "Fight Club" with obsessive Star Wars merchandise collecting. I really enjoyed this film and it expresses many of my thoughts about the Star Wars merchandise (summed up in my 13" Greedo sitting on my desk for years outside of his original packaging.)

Warning: This film contains spoilers if you have not seen "Fight Club." If you have not seen "Fight Club" shame on you! Go rent it now! I will wait until you get back. Go on! GET! (Are you still here!?)

"Real Men of the Empire"

2005-05-18T19:22:00.000-04:00

Once upon a time Bud Light ran an ad spot on the radio called "Real American Hero" and would feature something absolutely ridiculous for the "American Hero" (like my favorite, "Mr. Wrestling Wardrobe Designer".) Well today's flick is a parody of those ads called, "Real Men of the Empire." Be sure to watch for, "What is really wrong with the Empire," and why the Rebels have better recruitment ads.

Political aside: OK, I realize that after 9/11 it would be uncomfortable for the "Real American Hero" ads to continue, but in essence those ads were always blatantly over the top. They could always have been taken offensivly because they were grouping Mr. Really bad Toupee Wearer with Medal of Honor receipients, but I never recalled hearing even a slight protest to the ads. They do still runs the ads but as "Real Men of Genius", but to me it doens't have the same ring to it. Are we that politically correct or downright sissy of a nation not to get a stupid joke?? Maybe they were just afriad of being sued for offending somebody. Sigh.

end rant; -- cleanup and put away soapbox

"Trooper Clerks"

2005-05-17T20:39:00.000-04:00

What happens when you mix the characters from Kevin Smith's cult classic Clerks with Star Wars? Pure comedy genius! So today I present to you the fan film, "Trooper Clerks."

(Also as an interesting aside related to this post. I worked at a Pathmark grocery store in my late teen years and I swear to God that the girl in Clerks that gave the 37 "BJs" came in and went through my line. Turns out she worked as a hairdresser in the same shopping plaza. So I went out that night and purchased a copy of Clerks and a sharpie and brought it with me to the register as I worked every day, but saddly she never came through my line at work again. I still wish that I had her signature because her character made me laugh so hard, and was right (Dante was a tool to her.) Well if that doesn't start a flame war I don't know what will.)

"Your Lightsaber and You"

2005-05-16T14:59:00.000-04:00

Not much longer until Episode III. In keeping with what I promised earlier here is the next fan film recommendation.

Today I bring you the heart warming story of a boy, Timmy, who has just constructed his first lightsaber and the 1960's-esq safety video that helps him and his friends use it appropriately "Your Lightsaber and You."

Sadly it looks like I may not make it to see Star Wars 3 until Monday due to a very busy weekend, but I think I can live with that. I will just keep myself totally cut off from all forms of media until showtime (I've already begun construction of my isolation chamber).

Live From My Linux Laptop

2005-05-15T22:10:00.000-04:00

W00t! I finally got my laptop to install and run linux just now! It has taken me all weekend but it is so nice to have a fast OS on my laptop again (My laptop became a slug after SP2)!

So I installed Knoppix 3.7 on my laptop, but this was after I had major issues installing Slackware 10.1 and 10.0 (has anyone else had problems trying to use disk 2? Please let me know!), and Debian 3.0 revision 5 failed to properly config my ati mobile radeon video drivers. Oh well it works and it is Linux, right!?

Now to get my bookmarks for Firefox going. Oh my dad just told me he finally installed Firefox (after I told him for like months how great it was) and he says he loves it too! Watch out Microsoft, your loyalty base is crumbling!

Star Wars, Nothing but S-T-A-R W-A-R-S-!

2005-05-15T19:25:00.000-04:00

Today I shall begin my countdown to Star Wars Episode 3. Since I did not purchase tickets 30 years in advance I will not be seeing it opening night. Instead I will probably see it Friday.

Anyway I shall recommend a different Atom Films Star Wars fan film every day until I get to see the blasted thing (or Friday whichever comes first.)

Tonight I wanted to start out strong with a parody of "The Apprentice" called "Sith Apprentice". This short proves once and for all why Darth Vader is the epitomy of evil that is the Dark Side! Also look out for these little hidden gems:

Princess Bride References

Lord of the Rings references

Highlander reference

Monty Python reference(!)

Vader's reason why Count Doku is pathetic

The totally sweet female Storm Trooper's armor

A Star Trek and Babylon 5 reference in the same scene

Also you can leave anonymous comments, really you can! Please talk to me I'm lonely!

Holy Crap on a Crap Cracker!

2005-05-13T22:08:00.000-04:00

Ok, I have purposely kept my nose out of all the Star Wars Episode III trailers because I didn't want to build up my expectations unreasonably. So until just a minute ago I have not seen any trailers, heard any commercials, read any reviews, or even really dicussed the movie.

That is until just now since I was not expecting to hear it on the Dragon Page podcast.

Oh my God! I must see it now! Give it to me now! I shall kneel before George Lucas and ask what my master's bidding is! Holy crap I only HEARD a two minute tralier and I immediately felt tingles of excitement and anticipation.

My favorite part was when Obi-Wan screams, "You were the chosen one!" and it cuts to Vader's breathing.

Is this the personification of intense marketing while I was in my formative years, or is this my geek nature taking hold? I care not, I just know that I must have it! It has a strong influence on this weak mind!

Now if you'll excuse me I need to take a cold shower and then find the trailer online.

Fully Recovered

2005-05-11T19:13:00.000-04:00

I have determined over the past couple days that I am almost fully recovered from my wedding maddness two months ago. I am using the trend in my reading material as the basis for this. Here is how it works and how I know I'm (almost) back to normal.

A year ago I was reading programming manuals (mostly on how to run Linux or to do something with Linux.) I was able to digest this info and was enjoying the reading immensely. Then about nine months ago I started reading novels instead of the technical books. I devoured several good ones over the next four or five months including (but not limited to) Neuromancer, American Gods, 1984, Just a Geek, and I Robot. Then about four months ago I was reading collections of short stories, usually in the magazines Asimov, Analog, and Fantasy & Science Fiction. Then with only two months to go until the wedding all I was reading was Manga (Oh how the mighty had fallen!) But wait! That's not the worst of it! With only weeks to go before the wedding reading even Japanese comics centered around school girls in uniforms and absurd situations became too much for me since I had bought a couple of books and never even finished them!

Then the Wedding took place (I've started the next blog on it, keep your shirt on!)

Ah the flight out was a beautiful twelve hours of nothing. Just me and a book of short Sci-Fi stories I had purchased. By the time I came home two weeks later I had read most of that book. Then it was another book of short stories I had started but never finished. I didn't realize it yet, but I was on the road to recovery. In the last couple of weeks I have been reading Neverwhere (an awesome book) and have even picked up a book on Sed and Awk scripting (though I haven't been devoting too much time to it since Neverwhere is so damn good!)

Thank God I skipped the Manga on the way back (but if you get a chance check out MegaTokyo, its written by an American and ranges from completely ridiculous to heart warming.)

(Wow, this blog was link filled, eh?)

My New and Improved Geek Code

2005-05-09T23:09:00.000-04:00

I was going over some of my older entries and realized that my geek code had changed but I had not put up the new geek code. The big changes are in the relationship, living arrangement, and sex. I also decided to be a little more realistic when it comes to my other yearnings. So without further ado, my geek code.

-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.1
GCS/G d--(+)@ s+:- a- C++$ ULSC++$ P+>++ L++>++++ E--- W+>+++ N++ o K? w(--) O- M V-- PS+@ PE+@ Y+ PGP- t++@ 5 X+ R-(++)* tv- b++ DI++++ D++ G++ e++>+++ h--- r+++ y+++*
-----END GEEK CODE BLOCK------

As with last time here is where you can cheat. If you want to know what you're geek code is you can do so here.

The McChicken Wars and Mint Shakes

2005-05-07T11:54:00.000-04:00

I have three quick things to share with you.

First I was listening to a new favorite podcast of mine Mur's Geek Fu Action Grip and heard a great song at the tail end of her 21st Podcast. The song is hysterical and has been stuck in my head since I first heard it. Check it out for a good laugh (HINT: the song starts about 5 minutes from the end of the mp3.)

Secondly, my intro post is now up on The New Wisdom so check it foolio!

Lastly, I was at McDonald's last night for the first time since I got married. I was ordering my typical "Cheap Ass Combo" (Double Cheeseburger and small fries, total cost $2.12) when I saw they had St Patty's Day Mint Shakes listed on the menu.
"Do you really have the mint Shakes," I eagerly asked the scratchy intercom.
"Yesh [tch] we d- [tch] sir." Was the reply. I took that as a yes.
"I'll have a small one of those then."
"Than- [tch] you. [tch]"
The shake was wonderful, even if their intercom sucked. I do hope that the mint shakes are here to stay. I would gladly pay a little more on my Cheap Ass Combo for them regularly.

The above blurb reminds me of when Jeff single handedly protested the loss of the McChicken sandwich to the Arch Chicken Deluxe. He created a webpage to its memory with images that he had taken of it. When asked about why he cared he would pull out his soapbox and explain how you couldn't just replace a staple on the menu every time you had a change in marketing campaigns! Sure we all thought he was a little bit daft, but that is Jeff. In the end guess who I thanked for it's return (and at a cheaper price too!) So every time you eat a McChicken say a little thank you to this unsung hero of the McChicken wars!

The New Wisdom Has Lift Off

2005-05-04T20:16:00.000-04:00

My friend, Senor Duc has recently put together a new politically oriented website called "The New Wisdom." The purpose of this site is to have enlightened debate on societies problems. When I heard what Duc was doing I asked if I could be a part of it. I'm not the most active or informed person I know, but I wanted to be a part of the site. I was overjoyed when Duc emailed me late last week with my login. I just submitted my first post, an introduction, for review. So look for it sometime in the coming days.

As a taste, the following was the first draft of what I was going to put into my intro. After working on it for a little while I decided it wasn't the right time to bring this up, but I thought I would share it with all of you faithful Spambots. So have at it.

For almost twenty years now I have been struggling with the way the world works. If I had to pick an event that started this it would be a trip to New York City my father took my sisters and I on when I was eleven years old. I don't remember where in the city we were, or where we were going but I do remember this. In the falling snow besides a gray skyscraper stood an elderly man in a tattered tan trench coat, duct taped shoes, worn fedora, fingerless knit gloves, and a bag of hot dog rolls at his feet. He was shivering from the cold and rubbing his hands together for warmth and while my dad rushed my sisters and I past him I heard him saying in a scratchy voice to all those passing by, "Hot dog rolls! Ten cents!"

I've thought about that man and his hot dog rolls many times over the last seventeen years. Is he the a shining example of the power of capitalism? Is he an example of how our society has failed him? Or is he just another bum that should be ignored and rushed past? None of these questions have simple or easy answers.

Now I work in Camden, NJ. A city that is ranked as the most violent city in America. I used to commute to work via public transit before I moved. The homeless and downtrodden knew the entrance to the train station was where to hit up the daily commuters for loose change or maybe a crisp dollar bill. I would occasionally pass on a spare dollar here or there to those asking. They ranged from the bum that wore winter clothes in the summer to the dirty hippie chick that had apparently been left behind after one of the local concerts blew through town. Always I thought about the Hot Dog Man. I thought, "Maybe if I gave just a little to this person, they will be able to turn their life around. Maybe this is the little help they need."

The truth is that a single dollar probably would never help these people out. The truth is that if I wanted to help these people out I should have joined the soup kitchen I passed every day or another organization that looked to help the homeless. I still want to help and I think that I will join the soup kitchen. I only can't change the world, but maybe I can team up with others to try and help others.

Future Perfect

2005-04-28T19:34:00.000-04:00

So I was strolling through Best Buy on Friday looking for a new TV since it was our bridal shower gift from my parents, I just had to do the legwork and pick out one I liked. While I was there I somehow managed to walk into the Playstation aisle. I don't know why this happens it just seems that my brain somehow knows exactly where a store sells video games. I swear I am not doing it of my free will, honest!

So I am in the video game aisle and I see something completely unexpected. Holy Crap! Time Splitters 3 is out! When did that happen!? I quickly call Ryan and he didn't even hesitate once I told him. He told me, "BUY IT NOW!"

You see, back in the steamy summer '02 Ryan and I were hanging out and we decided it was time to buy a new Playstation 2 game for our enjoyment. So we went to the mall and gambled nine buck on a title neither of us had ever heard of called "Time Splitters." It appeared to be a generic FPS (First Person Shooter for those not in the know) according to the back cover, but we were getting sick of 007: Agent Under Fire and wanted a new FPS experience.

We took it home and discovered it had the absolute worst story mode ever. BUT it had the BEST arcade or death match mode Ryan had ever played up to that point. What made it so great you ask? Well it turns out that Time Splitters was developed by the same team that helped to release Goldeneye on N64. So right off the bat the game had the same fast action that made Goldeneye the standard for FPS to this day. Secondly they the main feature for the game was the ability to design your own multiplayer maps! I have never seen this functionality for another console game system. Say what you want about Halo, but does it allow you to make your own map? No? Then what is that hard drive on the XBOX good for? Lastly it had all the ingredients for an awesome video game. These are aliens, zombies, robots, and monkeys. No game can fail if it can pull off all of these elements.

Time Splitters 2 came out Christmas 2002 and it also rocked the casaba. It made the story mode a much more robust and added several hundred new playable characters (each with a comical little description).

So now Time Splitters: Future Perfect is out and I just have to say that it is the most enjoyable game I have played since Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. For the new release they bring the Time Splitter story to a conclusion (but hint that it probably isn’t the last.) They also included online play and map trading. Awesomeness. From what Ryan and I have seen so far we are pretty impressed and quite happy with the game.

So check it out if you like FPS, it is out on all the consoles. I guarantee you won’t be upset.

Pot Luck #2: Live From My Patio

2005-04-20T18:53:00.000-04:00

Welcome to my second installment of Pot Luck. No you aren’t going crazy this is labeled number two even though there isn’t really a #1, but I think that the entry entitled “Damn I’m a Slacker” was pretty much in the spirit of this Pot Luck idea. Basically the idea for these types of entries will be to cover multiple little things that might not fit elsewhere. So without further disclaimers here I go.

The Patio:
God is it gorgeous out today! I was so lucky to be able to head home a little early and soak in the beautiful late afternoon while sitting in traffic. So I decided to drag a chair out onto my patio/balcony and do this entry from my laptop. So here I go cracking open a beer right now. If this entry goes downhill fast it is because I have the tolerance of a pre-teen girl (not Drew Barrymore). My apartment is nice and quiet and semi secluded (for an apartment building). I have a great view of the garbage dumpster where the King of the Squirrels sits on his throne. You see the squirrels here grow really large and there is one in particular which I think is most likely their leader as I saw him jump at least four feet up inot a tree with a whole slice of pizza in his mouth. As Kevin put it on seeing him, “Good thing you and Rita don’t have kids. The squirrels would make off with them in the night!”

Pope Reset Switch:
Speaking of God and Kevin. So we have a new Pope. Whoopee. Yay. Rah-Rah. I’m sorry but Kevin and I were talking about the possibility that Ratzinger would get the post and neither of us liked that idea. Kevin was quite worried (since he actually cares about what is going on) and said that he sure hopes that he isn’t as conservative as when he was a Cardinal (The guy wanted to bring back LATIN at the masses because he thinks having it in the native tongue ruins the service). I have to agree with Kevin, but I consoled him by letting him know that if The Conclave picked the wrong Pope, God would just hit the ol’ Pope Reset Switch and they’ll just have to elect a new one.

Podcasts:
So I tried out iPodder for Winblows XP and it worked great! Ok not really. It started to act really flaky and started crashing iTunes and making my iPod act really weird when it updated. So it is gone. I did get attached to several good podcasts though and I would like to share them with you. You can either subscribe to their feeds with iPodder-esq software or you can download them straight from their sites. Here are my favorites:

The Dragon Page is run by two guys that do three podcasts a week. These podcasts deal with fantasy and sci-fi. There is Dragon Page Cover to Cover which interviews fantasy & sci-fi authors, Slice of Sci-Fi that deals purely with Save Enterprise (so far, but it is only 3 episodes old), and my favorite Wingin’ It. In Wingin’ It they just crack open beers and BS with their friends and play skits people record for the show. They range from parodies of movies to a guy that sends in commentary about the Star Wars universe from an Imperial Storm Trooper’s perspective. It is pretty cool so check it foolio (drinks beer).

Vinyl Podcast is a guy with a ton of old records, 45’s, 8-tracks, cassettes, and CD’s. Every podcast he takes one song that you can no longer buy anywhere and plays it with a small commentary. It is really neat to hear these great and obscure old songs.

Evil Genius Chronicles is just a wacky guy podcasting about various things and playing music. I’ve only caught a couple of these because iPodder screwed me, but what I heard I liked.

Wedding Entry:
Ok, I really want to write several entries on this, but it is such a huge task that it has me daunted. Maybe if I get a chance while helping Ryan baby-sit Ella tomorrow I’ll cranks one out. There is so much I want to say that I really want to do it justice. So bear with me. An interesting aside, I really was a wreck for like a month before the wedding. I am looking back at everything that I did during that period, and well its shit.

Well that about does it for this episode. Brought to you by wikipedia. Wikipedia is there anything it can’t find? (No I wasn’t paid for that plug, but I used it so much for this entry I thought it would be funny, so deal.)

PErfect timeing, I just finished my first beer!

XBox Alive

2005-04-17T21:33:00.000-04:00

Once upon a time a guy I knew at my last job was looking to get rid of his Xbox for only $100. I had just bought and read through a good chunk of "Hacking the Xbox so it sounded like a great opportunity for me. So I bought what turned out to be a first gen console (Microsoft has released a bunch of different version to try to thwart the hackers). It was in generally good shape and turned out to be perfect for my needs. I promptly hacked a controller cable into a USB hub and installed Linux (Xebian a Debian variant to be specific). I then used it mostly for games until I moved (hey you try using a TV as a monitor and see how much you use it). After I moved to my present apartment I tried to turn it on and it seemed to be dead.

I was a little disappointed, to say the least. It had been a fun project and since I had joined the Linux user group I thought I could do a presentation on the Xbox. Resigned that fixing it would probably be a chore I traded in the few games I had bought for it (except for Halo and MechAssault which is used for the Linux hack).

Well Thursday of last week I decided it was judgement day for the Xbox. I would either revive it or it would go to the dumpster. It only took me abour five minutes on Google and xbox-linux.org to realize that it would probably take me almost no time to revive my fallen Xbox. It turned out the problem I was seeing (a constantly rebooting system) was caused by the Linux menu option I hacked into the Xbox menu system interfering with the Xbox trying to update its clock (the clock was hosed since it had been unplugged during the move). The fix, put a DVD in the drive and it would stop the rebooting process. A one minute fix.

After that I tried Linux but the interface was hosed when I booted into it. So I decided to remove it and start over. I've prepared to do the install, but I need to buy a CD-RW as that is what my Xbox likes to read the best of the writable media I have (another M$ anti hacking attempt). I thought I had some but apparently they, "...went out walking with a Bible and a gun..." (name that tune and win a pat on the back).

Well at least I can play Halo in the meantime.

(If you want another song clue here is another verse: "Now, Jesus, don't you wait up. Jesus, I'll be home soon." It was sung by Johnny Cash, but was not on any of his albums. Ryan, if you don't guess this I'll be greatly disappointed.)

"Its Dead, Jim"

2005-04-12T21:41:00.000-04:00

Well, according to slashdot it seems that Paramount will not revive Enterprise for another season no matter how much money the fans raise. (Hey, it was on Slashdot so it must be true, right?)

Sorry Señor Duc and all the rest of you Enterprise lovers, but Rita, myself, and even Paramount agree that it is high time this series was put down like a rabid dog.

At least there is still Battlestar Galactica. That show is awesome and doesn't reverse the polarity nearly as much as Star Trek has been lately. You know that raises a really good point. How many times did Data save the day on TNG by "reversing the polarity"? Hell if I were Picard that would be the first thing I would have done.

Geordi: Captain, the Borg have us traped in some energy matrix that is negating our main stabilizers.
Data: The energy matrix seems to be a highly concentrated cloud of dark matter that is -
Me as Picard: Shut up Commander Data, and reverse polarity already! And after you do that have Dr. Crusher and Dianna join me in my ready room*.
Data: Of course! If we reverse the polarity of the main Ness cells we could force the cloud of dark matter to pull us out of -
Wesley: I reversed the polarity while you were talking and saved the ship! Now I'm off to make out with Ashley Judd, again.

The End (or they could have spent the next 50+ minutes developing the characters).

*Why is it called the Ready Room? Because it is ready for love, baby. Yeah!

**Disclaimer: Despite the really shoddy and almost evil recreation of TNG I just did I think it was and is still the coolest Star Trek series to date. Even though I think TOS movies were (in general) better. Oh and I always liked Wesley. Yeah they gave his character the worst lines, but it was a great inspiration to see a kid (close to) my age not just on the Enterprise D, but driving the fucking thing. Now that rocks!

Now I just hope no Trekkies/Trekkers track me down and beat me with their phasers (since they are just props and can’t actually “phase” anything).

(Rita just read this entry over my shoulder and thwacked me good.)

PROMOTION!

2005-04-12T21:36:00.000-04:00

Rita got a promotion! She is now an Associate Editor! w00t! It is so awesome and I am so happy for her. Way to go sweetie!

Damn I'm a Slacker

2005-04-05T00:02:00.000-04:00

Wow, I can't believe how lazy I've been about updating my blog since my wedding (as opposed to before it). I will try and do better. I promise you, my loyal spam bots and dead guinea pigs, that I will do better. Starting right now.

OK I don't have the energy to give you the next part of the wedding story. Instead I want to touch on several small things that have gone down in the back week.

Señor Duc:
Duc is a lot like me in many ways. We both are incredibly intelligent. We are both geeks blessed with awesome female companions. And, of course, we are both slackers. I have always wanted to challenge Duc to a slack-off, but I've never gotten around to it. (Wow! I think I just made the spam bots groan!) So why say all this. Well señor Duc gave a presentation this past Friday at the Linux User Group on using X-10 and its compatible bits to create a web based java application that allows a user to turn off his Christmas tree in his living room. Very cool and despite the fact that he put the presentation together at the last minute (and at great expense) he did an awesome job. Rock on Duc!

Podcasting:
Well I am trying this whole podcasting thing out. I've downloaded ipodder and it is currently grabbing feeds. I'll give them a listen tomorrow while working and see how it goes. What is neat is that Battlestar Galactica has a podcast with commentary for each episode so that you can hear the commentary while the show airs on the TV for the first time. That is awesome! On top of that I can't believe Adam Curry (yes the MTV VJ Adam Curry) thought it up and wrote the first Apple Script to do it! That is amazing on so many levels. You rock Adam Curry. (If you want to learn more about podcasting click this link.)

MHS Reunion:
Oh thank God it was raining too hard on Saturday for me to go to my high school reunion. I was looking forward to seeing Lori and my old gang, but the more I thought about seeing all the other people from high school (like that weird Wickersty kid ;) the less I wanted to see them. There is a reason I haven't talked to these people in so many years. I leave it as an exercise to the reader to determine what that reason is (don't you hate it when somebody does that?). Oh quit your bitching Jeff, you know you are my best bud!

Last but Not Least Justin:
Justin... proposed... to his girlfriend (I'm sure she has a very nice name, I just can't remember it right now)! HOLY SHIT! Well I am shocked since I didn't think Justin was the marrying type, but now that he has "started down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny." Just kidding (I'm married I can say that now). Congrats Justin and Justin's fiancee`, but remeber there is only one lord of the rings, and she does not share power (line courtesy of Ryan). Good luck you two.

Quickie #3: w00t!

2005-04-01T19:46:00.000-05:00

I just sat down with the latest Knoppix Live CD to try and figure out how to get my laptop to connect to the wireless network here at the Linux user group and I discovered that it was auto-configured and set up on its own! Now I have (almost) no excuse to put Linux on my laptop!

w00t!

Prelude to a Wedding

2005-03-25T20:53:00.000-05:00

I didn't expect to spend the day before I got married burying my grandmother. Fact is I was petrified that I'd see anyone from my family for about a year surrounding my wedding date. You see only one of my sisters, Christina, was the only person invited to my wedding. That means my mother, aunts, uncles, cousins and everyone else associated with that side of my family. Without creating a giant tangent let me sum up this way, I don't get along with my mother and this has created a giant rift between myself and my family on that side.

So here I was going to my favorite grandparent's funeral and seeing a ton of family that I was afraid would be out to kill me because if there is one thing that planning a wedding has taught me it is family politics. My father was coming with me to the funeral but Rita wasn't. I was afraid of having her exposed to any animosity that I was going to get. My dad didn't need to go and frankly I wouldn't have been surprised if he was more scared than I was. It was his ex-wife's mother after all.

So the two of us entered the funeral home prepared for the worst, but that wasn't what we got. In fact only my mother and younger sister, Marielle, didn't say anything to my father or me. Everyone else was not only nice to my father and I, but also wished me nothing but the best and offered to get together after my honeymoon. As for my dad, they were very nice to him as well. My cousin, Julie, even told my dad that, "Everyone knows the hard work and good job you did with Christina and Jeremy. I don't know why my aunt (my mother) is so messed up." My dad was blown away. I think he never expected to get a appreciation from any of my mother's family for the very hard work he has done to take me and Christina.

So I buried my grandmother, I called her Nana. I barely cried at the ceremony or burial. I was numb the entire morning. I had cried my tears the day I heard about it. I had been a complete disaster and it had carried over with me for days afterward, but when it came time, I was out of emotion. You see Nana was my favorite grandparent. I used to spend every Summer with her and Pop-Pop, my grandfather. It was time I had to still be a child and to figure out life in my way so that I would turn into the adult I am today. She spent time and energy on not just trying to help me come to terms with what happened between myself and my mother as well as my childhood.

There is more that I want to say but this is tough on me and I will broach it again later. Next time the wedding rehearsal and rehearsal dinner.

Return of the Geek

2005-03-25T02:09:00.000-05:00

Well here it is 2am (Philly time) and I've just settled in behind my computer. Ah Linux, how I missed you.

So I'm experiencing my first real jet lag. You see my body still thinks that it is 9:12 PM Hawaiian time. This is not going to be a recap of the honeymoon since I am pretty much bouncing off the walls and can't form a cohesive thought. I will bring you wedding and honeymoon stories in bite sized pieces over the next umpty-squat days (FYI: the "umpty-squat" is exactly 2/3 of a "damned-if-I-know".)

I will give all you spam bots an update on an earlier post, though. My grandmother Lila is home and recovering from surgery, and my cousins Susan and Randi are doing better with what they are going through. Sadly my other grandmother,
Flo, had died by the time I had written the last entry. I didn't know it at the time and nobody called to tell me until much later that night. The thing that really sucked was I called about Lila and found out she was ok and was relieved, only to check my answering machine less than 5 minutes later to find out that Flo had died. I wanted to post something on that at the time but I still don't know exactly what to say. I think I will post on that tomorrow with the first wedding/honeymoon installment. (She was buried the day before my wedding, how much does that suck? Oh ok, I'll tell you how much that sucked tomorrow.)

In the meantime I'm off to hug my wife.

A Call for Help

2005-03-08T11:13:00.000-05:00

My grandmother has just been rushed into emergency surgery. She had collapsed on her way to the airport for the wedding. This is tearing me apart. I have said since the onset that I understand if people can't make it because they are ill, I just want them to get better. Really that is all I want. So in that vein please send a thought, prayer, mojo, or karma to the following people so that they get better soon.

Lila, my grandmother undergoing surgery.
Florence, my other grandmother who is recovering from a heart attack and cannot attend my wedding.
My cousin Susan and her recovery.
Lastly my cousin Randi and that everything she is going through.

They are all such great people and have helped me through so much of the crap that I've gone through in my life. Send a little thought to them so that maybe it will help them get a little better.

Thank you.

Just a Couple Things

2005-03-04T23:47:00.000-05:00

Ok first off I made it so you don't have to sign in to leave comments, don't abuse it or it goes bye-bye ok (that's a warning for all you spam bots out there).

So today is my second to last Friday as a single man and how do I spend it? I went to a Linux User Group meeting. Yeah, I'm a geek and proud. You see my friend Justin was presenting Freevo and I wanted to see it and hang with him for a bit. You can do really cool stuff with that if you are a fellow Linux geek. If you are interested you can check out Justin's step-by-step setup.

Next up, my Pepsi addiction as of late. Its not for the taste, cause frankly I've always thought that Pepsi was the inferior product to Coke. No it is the iTunes download contest. I just started this week and I've already won 5 free songs and a buy one get one free. That's a 100% win ratio! So you may ask me why I am buying $1.29 bottles of soda for a $0.99 song? Well I figure if I'm going to get a soda I might as well try to win something from it. I've used these songs to try out albums I'm interested in. Love my iPod, but I'll blog that later.

Lastly I stumbled on something really bizarre on MTV2 just now while flipping through channels. It is called Video Mods and features popular video game characters singing modern rock all rendered by NVIDIA. I tell you that you haven't lived until you've seen Leisure Suit Larry and his girls singing to the Black Eye Peas "Shut Up". Ok, that may have been blatant Bullshit.

Quickie #2: Man Sex

2005-03-03T23:25:00.000-05:00

Duc, how many times must I tell you that I'm not interested in your advances.

"Not that there is anything wrong with that."

Rita is the Coolest Girl in Existence

2005-03-01T18:10:00.000-05:00

Duc saw my Bachelor Party entry and was flabergasted. He said, "Also why the fuck would you write about the stripper portion of your bachelor party on your blog? Rita must be the coolest girl in existence (second to my Amy of course) or you are the most foolish man ever."

Well you see señor Duc, Rita is the coolest girl in existence. She knew there would be strippers and I told her everything that happened. She didn't press me to tell her either. I told her willingly! Since she didn't kill me I dub her "The Coolest Girl in Existence".

Love you honey.

(Oh stop gagging already!)

Radio One Redux

2005-03-01T17:55:00.000-05:00

Ok I can't drop this Radio One asshat maneuver I mentioned in yesterday's entry. So here is another blog on it. Check out this link to the courierpostonline.com. In this article Radio One blames the cancellation of Y100 on THE FANS! This is great spin! They must have kindergarteners as PR people.

"You killed our rock station!"
"No we didn't! It's all your fault!" (Then they proceed to eat the paste.)

Apparently they are blaming the fans because they didn't fill out surveys administered by a ratings entity. That is an interesting point, but do you know what is even more interesting? This is the second time they killed a rock station in favor of Hip-Hop! Hmmm, sounds like a Modus Operandi to me. Find a rock station and replace it with cRAP!

That being said I once again direct you to www.y100rocks.com. Please consider signing the petition and check out their message boards for info on an upcoming protest in the LOVE Park in Philly!

Lastly here is a treat to all you patient spam bots. I present to you the email address for all the Radio One asshats. If you are a real person, please think about writing to them and tell them what huge asshats they are. (Emails obtained from y100rocks.com.)

Alfred Liggins, CEO - aliggins@radio-one.com or acl@radio-one.com
Mary Catherine Sneed, COO - mcsneed@radio-one.com

Next time I will present to you companies that advertise on The Beat you may want to write to >:)

Fuck you hard Radio One! Fuck you hard!

The Bachelor Party

2005-02-28T20:12:00.000-05:00

So Saturday I was lounging at my apartment watching X-Men when there was a knock at my door. When I opened it my two best men Ryan and Jeff rushed in and proceeded to pull me out of my apartment.

The bachelor party was on!

So first we went to the hotel where we met up with my cousins. I was so happy to see Marc, Andrew, Mike, and Harris all loaded into a cab and ready to go. I was so afraid some of them wouldn’t make it that I was overjoyed when I saw them there!

First stop, Radicchio Cafe. Kevin, one of my groomsmen, had been a trooper and was waiting for our pose to show up while trying to hold a table for an hour and a half. He waited in the cold while sick as a dog so that we would have first dibs when our lazy asses showed up. This place served up really good food and despite Ryan and Jeff forgetting two of our three bottles of wine we were still able to get our drink on since a kind table donated a bottle of wine to our cause. For picking this awesome place and going the extra mile I give Kevin a huge thanks. You Fucking Rock^TM!

So after steaks and fish and a butt load of appetizers we went off to our next destination. Dave & Busters. In case you haven't noticed yet I'm a video game junkie. As such I've always enjoyed going there and tonight was no different. I was able to finally beat Time Crisis 2 thanks to the help of Ryan and his sharp shooting skills. Awesome time. The best part was as we were winding down around 11:30 I caught up with Andrew and he said, "Wanna do a shot?"

"Hell yeah!" I replied and off we went with Mike and Jeff to get shots of Tequila.

While waiting (or right after, my memory starts getting a little fuzzy here) Andrew put his arm around me and said something along the lines of, "You know I have always thought of you as a real cousin." That warmed my heart as I always thought of him and the rest of my step cousins as real cousins. I was so happy to hear that he felt the same. I remember thinking, "Can this night get any better?" Well as I was about to learn, naked girls make everything better.

So off we went back to the hotel. I helped Ryan bring the case of Yuengling and forgotten wines up to the room. Passing the front desk of the hotel the man working there said, "No heavy drinking please." I simply replied, "We won't."

Sucker!

So back at the hotel room we all cracked open the beer and waited for the main event. Strippers! When they arrived we were not disappointed. Two hot strippers (and one bouncer that wasn't so hot) showed up at the room a little after midnight and the party went straight to 11! So many great stories could be told, but I think I will leave it here so that only those present can know the tale of the "Double Cock Knee Rub".

So a little after 1 AM the party broke up with my cousins heading to Atlantic City to test Lady Luck while Kevin went home to nurse his cold. That left Jeff, Ryan, myself, about 6 beers and a bottle of Ryan's home made wine. It wasn't easy but I am proud to say that we finished off all the offending alcohol and I personally took care of about half of that bottle of wine. I was loopy and happy. It was an awesome time and I want to thank everyone that made it such a memorable night (and gave me an amazing hangover). Thank you all.

Jeff you did an awesome job with the strippers (as well as anyone else that assisted in that task).Ryan, thank you for pulling this all together and sweating all the details (as I know only you can). I had a great time. Mission accomplished!

Now onto the sad part of this past weekend. Apparently the asshats at the evil radio corporation called Radio One decided to pull the plug on the last alternative rock station left in the Philadelphia area. They decided in their finite wisdom that a generic, lower ranking, crappy R&B station was worth firing all of the DJs that had helped raise over 400 tons of food for the needy, promoted local Philly bands, and ran the last awesome radio station in Philadelphia. Thankfully not everybody is taking this sitting down. So do me and the thousands of other loyal Y100 listeners a favor and sign the petition against this at Y100rocks.com and show these asshats that they fucked with the wrong city. Good luck all you Y100 DJs. You all Fucking Rock^TM and I will be listening for where you will turn up next. Until then I will be using my iPod while in the car much, much more often.

Fuck you Radio One. It’s early in the year but I think you will win the coveted "Dead Guinea Pig Up Your Ass" award (fyi- only slightly less well known than the Oscars) for your shity treatment of Philadelphia's rock scene. Fuck you hard!

But the bachelor party Fucking Rocked^TM! (I couldn’t end this on such a downer, especially since Saturday was the most fun I have had in ages).

You Know You're Serious When...

2005-02-23T21:43:00.000-05:00

Gather around all you spam bots and I'll tell you when you know you're in a serious relationship.

It is when you allow your tools to commingle. You see Rita has a rather extensive set of hand-me-down tools while I was always able to make due with a bare minimum. So yesterday I picked up a sweet new tool box and moved all of our tools into it. Afterward I looked upon it mildly impressed with my 1337 tool organization when it occurred to me that this was a big step. We commingled our tools! We haven't even done that yet with our CDs and just started to integrate our movies and books. I was proud that this step had been taken and wanted to share it. So naturally I brought it up when my manager at work asked me, "So how are the wedding jitters going?"

"Not so bad." I replied, "We moved all of our tools into one toolbox yesterday."

"You did WHAT!?"

"We, um, commingled our tools."

"That's pretty serious. I've been married to my second husband for years and our tools still don't ever touch!"

I never thought that this could have been a taboo! But that is Rita and I, two rebels tearing down the walls of the convention. Call me a dirty liberal, but maybe someday her CDs can be with mine in the 5 disc changer at the same time.

Gack! 17 Days to go!

2005-02-23T00:37:00.000-05:00

T minus 17 days until my wedding. Holy crap!

I freaked out today when I realized I still had not purchased the presents for the groomsmen. So a quick run to the store and I got that taken care of, but there are still so many little details to finish!

I'm trying not to stress out because I know that doing so won't help. Rita and I have a running joke that goes something like this:

"I'm so stressed about this thing."

"Do you need to freak out?

"Yes, but I don't have time in my schedule to do that until three days from now"

It would be funny if it weren't true. I don't think I'm as bad as my bud Ryan was, but I can certainly see how he got to that point.

You see when I showed up early for his wedding rehearsal he was out running errands. So I hung around and waited for him. When he showed up he ran into his house, grabbed some things and started back to the car saying, "You coming!?"

So I jumped into his passenger seat and in less than a quarter of a mile I knew deep down that Ryan shouldn't be operating heavy machinery in the state that he was in. I tried to stay calm and I think I did a good job (my secret was to close my eyes and think of Christmas. Thanks Dragnet!).

I should be honest, I was able to keep calm until Ryan blew a stop sign.

"You know there was a stop sign at that intersection, right?" I asked him in one of my famous holy shit high pitched terror induced squeaks.

"Those things aren't important!" Ryan snapped followed by, "Why are you singing Jingle Bells?"

So to all of you spam bots out there the moral of this story is, dead guinea pigs tell no tales.

Hmmm, I thought I had a point for this. Maybe I should stop posting entries after my bed time.

Katamari Damacy

2005-02-21T20:27:00.000-05:00

Every now and again a video game comes around that makes you take a step back and think, "Holy crap those Japanese programmers are insane." Katamari Damacy is one of those games. It starts with the opening music, continues with the intro video, and almost immediately you are humming the song constantly and slowly driving your fiancée crazy. Then you start playing and you can't stop.

If you haven't seen this game the premise is this. Your father, the King of All Cosmos, went on a bender and destroyed all the stars in the sky. In order to correct this he calls upon his pint sized prince (you) and makes him create new stars by rolling up all the crap you can find on Earth (think what you used to do with Play-Doh when you were a kid). You beat a level by getting the size of stuff you rolled up to a certain size before time runs out. Then your pop will launch it into space, turning it into a star. That's it but surprisingly you don't need anymore than that to really enjoy this game.

So in conclusion this is probably the most original game I have played since Animal Crossing and I am overjoyed to hear that they are making a sequel. Congrats to all you insane Japanese programmers, you made a kick ass game!

The Pump

2005-02-16T19:19:00.000-05:00

OK, I was just publishing my first Quickie while watching TV when a Reebok has brought back the pumpable shoe. Good Lord! Have we left the eighties for the nineties already!? You know, we really don't need to relive every freaking decade of the twentieth century.

Listen to me all you dead guinea pigs, just let it die and let's start some new trends for a change.

Quickie #1: The Baby's Bottle

2005-02-16T19:05:00.000-05:00

From the Ryan School of Baby Sitting:

Me: "Did you check to see if the bottle was too hot for Ella?"

Ryan: "Is she screaming?"

You Heard it Here First.

2005-02-15T20:55:00.000-05:00

So I don't know about in your neck of the woods, but where I live there are at least two new radio spots featuring Hoobastank and Avril Lavigne talking about before they got huge you heard them first on the radio. Now I can think of numerous examples to disprove this, but today I want to talk about a new band that I did hear first on the radio.

Local H is a rock band that I heard on what Y100 calls "The Play of the Day". This is where the DJ on duty picks an obscure song or obscure version of a popular song and plays it. Well today's obscure song by Local H took everyone's favorite trailer park girl's song, Toxic, and did a rock-n-roll cover of it. I laughed my arse off. So all you spam bots should do a search for this song and give it a listen because you may end up thinking, "Say that ain't too shabby."

After you listen to that check out the song of the week on their discography page. California Songs this song is another rocking and hysterical song. Good times. Good luck Local H, you guys Fucking Rock^TM! (Yes I broke the fuck barrier, deal with it.)

r++>r+++ (The Valentine's Day Entry)

2005-02-14T18:23:00.000-05:00

So those of you that saw my last post and followed the cheat should have a clue as to what I am getting at with the title of this entry.

Basically that mish-mash of characters means that I have been seeing my significant other for a couple years but in the future I want/will be married to that significant other. The significant other has a name (Rita) and the will be married is just a short 26 days from today.

Everyone always asks me if I'm nervous about getting married. Let's see. We are talking about making a drastic life change, about losing the freedom of single living that I've had for the last 6 years, about being with Rita for the rest of my days, and the very real possibility that I will have to grow up. If you weren't the slightest bit nervous given all that then I'd have to say you are a looney.

Months ago when I was about to propose I told my friends that I was getting ready to get on the wedding rollercoaster. Well my friends, I am at the part where the coaster is at the top of the long climb up where you can see what is about to come. Right before you start to pick up the speed that will send you flying across the rest of the track.

Now having said all that I want to make it clear that I have no doubts. I'm excited and yes nervous about what the future holds, but I have no doubts about choosing Rita to be my bride (technically she chose me to be her husband first, but more on that later (and why it doesn't count in my book)). I'm really nervous about the wedding though. We currently have 139 people coming and still haven't heard from all 213 that were invited. This is the largest party I've ever planned by a factor of 10! That is a horking lot of people and a lot of things that could possibly go wrong or be overlooked. Hopefully everything will come together and now that we have booked everything all we have to do is the nitty-gritty details, but that is where the Devil resides after all.

On a side note I saw that my good friend, señor Duc has made a huge mention of me on his blog (size 10 font to be specific) and has made a challenge to me about keeping up on my entries. Well Duc, I see your entry and raise you one.

(Here's my obligatory reference to spam bots and dead guinea pigs for those of you in the viewing audience that are keeping score.)

Geek Code

2005-02-10T01:59:00.000-05:00

I know all you loyal spam bots and dead guinea pigs have been dying to know, well wait no longer! Here is my geek code in all its glory!

-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.12
GCS/G d--(+)@ s+:- a- C++$ ULSC++$ P+>++ L++>++++ E--- W+>+++ N++@ o K? w(--) O- M>+ V-- PS+@ PE+@ Y+ PGP- t++@ 5 X+ R-(++)* tv- b++>+++ DI++++ D++ G++ e++>+++ h>--- r++>+++ y++*>+++
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------

(Here's a cheat for all of you that don't know what in tarnation this means.)

First Post!

2005-02-09T01:10:00.000-05:00

This whole blogging trend is really amazing. A year ago I didn't even know what a blog was despite being a huge computer nerd. Now it seems like everything has its own blog (including my dead guinea pig, George or G-Money for short even though it is longer). Since I found out what a blog was a few months ago I started following a few of them. My favorites right now are two by my friends (snoodish and The Duc Pond) as well as Wil Wheaton's blog.

So why am I doing this all you faithful spam bots* ask. Well I got tired of waiting for my friends to write a post regarding things we had discussed or ideas I had on my mind. So I will bring them out here.

So lets see... how about them Eagles...

(Gee this is harder than wonkette makes it out to be. Maybe I should have another beer and try this again later.)

!!!Disclaimer!!!
*I realize that there are some real people likely to read this site, but since I haven't told anyone about it yet I think there are probably more spam bot hits than actual hits from people viewing it.