| (no subject) |
[Oct. 16th, 2007|04:00 am] |
| [ | music |
| | From Yesterday - 30 Seconds To Mars | ] |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 16th, 2007|06:48 pm] |
This must have taken goddamn ages. |
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| On badly-formed metaphors |
[Jul. 6th, 2007|07:31 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  amused | ] |
I was walking into the neighborhood Bag-N-Slave today and a lady passed me driving a car that had one of those dealer-advertisements in lieu of a license plate. It read: "Above-Par Cars."
Now I may have only a passing familiarity with rules of golf having never played, but isn't that the same thing as saying "Shitmobile?" |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 30th, 2007|07:57 pm] |
| [ | music |
| | Over Root and Thorn - Isis | ] |
I think this says a lot about people's attitude to security.
The company probably spent hundreds of dollars installing a security system for the server room... and somebody props it open with a fucking trash can. |
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| Goodbye CompUSA, hello Best Buy |
[May. 18th, 2007|12:02 am] |
| [ | music |
| | Gustav's Arrival - Amplifier | ] |
Been meaning to post about this a for a while; been terribly busy. In fact, I'm putting off working on my science paper which is due next week. Fuck it.
So, a new Best Buy opened up around 72nd and 370, and they clearly were taking CompUSA's closing to heart when setting it up. Honestly, I haven't been so impressed with Best Buy's computer offerings since... ever. Aron and I went there to buy a mouse and various other things, and I was quite taken aback by the breadth of the selection. I got an unbelievable deal on a 500GB hard drive. I'm not quite so bummed anymore, since this will step in to fill the PC hardware vacuum left by Comp's closing. Oh, and we ran into Lauren there, who is a manager.
In fact, there's an entire shopping plaza that opened up there practically overnight. Not as upscale as Village Point, by which I mean it has stores I might conceivably walk into. (Which isn't entirely fair; I've walked into the Apple store a couple of times. You guys know I still love you :)
In other news, I'm on the market for a firewire recording interface that is Mac compatible, and has around 4 1/4" inputs. The setup that I've been using to record practice sessions with the band has been fucking up lately and I'd like to take advantage of Garageband on my Mac instead. I know none of you deal with this stuff directly, but I was hoping someone might know where to look. I've been cruising the usual places like Musician's Friend and zzounds, but haven't found anything decent in the $300-$500 range. |
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| What Would Paris Hilton Do... In Jail? |
[May. 9th, 2007|01:30 am] |
| [ | mood |
| | amused | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Straight Jacket Fashion - Chevelle | ] |
I normally wouldn't give a shit about the latest celebrity gossip, but lately it's become something of a guilty pleasure of mine thanks to What Would Tyler Durden Do? The byline says it all:
"What Would Tyler Durden Do" is a blog focused on bringing you the latest gossip and news about rich and famous celebrities. And then making fun of them. Why? Because fuck them, that's why.
On that note, you have no doubt heard about Paris Hilton's impending jail time. Apparently she put up a petition on her Myspace Page for Governor Schwartzenegger to waive the sentence. The thought of this spoiled rich girl protesting in futility against the machinations of the legal system through an online petition just warms my heart.
It gets better. As of 01:45 AM, the Free Paris Hilton petition was at 9,851 votes. The Jail Paris Hilton petition was at 13,818 votes.
Because it amuses me, I put my signature down on the latter. Feel free to do so as you see fit. |
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| (no subject) |
[Mar. 21st, 2007|06:17 pm] |
| [ | music |
| | Nine Inch Nails - All The Love In The World | ] |
Every time I find myself returning to Wal-Mart, I suddenly remember why I vowed never to return again.
This time, it was the sight of a morbidly obese woman digging out a wedgie.
Ugh. |
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| Back to school |
[Mar. 13th, 2007|11:38 pm] |
| [ | music |
| | Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Antennas to Heaven | ] |
For the first time since starting my new job, I'm going back to school again. In fact, I had to drop out of my last class because it conflicted with my work schedule, but now I'm glad I did. I was taking biology for my science credit, but this quarter it wouldn't fit into my schedule so I'm taking Introduction to Physical Science instead.
I've just had my first class, and I have to say it is definitely in the running for the most interesting class I will ever take at Metro. On the first day we went outside and listened to VLF frequencies to determine where the nearest thunderstorm was, and then we calculated the mass of an asteroid as it burned up in the atmosphere using nothing but a spectral analyzer and a sound file captured from a radio telescope. We also talked about the nuclear fusion process occurring in the Sun's core and why it's so important for NASA to collect He-3 from the moon.
Next class we're going to create plasma and talk about ion propulsion. I suppose some people might find this tiresome, but it fascinates the hell out of me. It doesn't even feel like work. It's been a long time since I was this excited about going to school. |
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| This is what I do when I get bored. |
[Feb. 19th, 2007|10:25 pm] |
| [ | music |
| | Low Tide - Isis + Aereogramme | ] |
A linux box logged in as root, with a nested X session logged in as a normal user,
which is running Windows virtualized, which is logged into a server through RDP, which
is viewing another workstation through SMS. Wheee. |
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| Work photos part deux |
[Feb. 17th, 2007|10:07 pm] |
| [ | music |
| | kids will be skeletons - mogwai | ] |
Here's some photos of the new building.
The 8th Floor lobby
My cubicle
This was from back when you could still see my desk... it's piled full of shit now. |
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| (no subject) |
[Feb. 14th, 2007|11:54 pm] |
| [ | music |
| | Like Herod - mogwai | ] |
I never really posted about the move to the new building, which was an enormous undertaking. Mostly because I was so exhausted from doing it I didn't really want to write about it. But I recently got a new camera with a built-in phone, so I have some pictures to post instead.
First, the Freedom Center. This is the building with the presses in it. I don't go here very often.
From the outside:
From the inside, on the other side of the press:
Here's the old building, where I used to work when I first started:
I'll post pictures of the new place later. |
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| (no subject) |
[Feb. 13th, 2007|09:30 pm] |
| [ | music |
| | Grinning Mouths - Isis | ] |
I just came across an awesome webcomic: Questionable Content
I've spent roughly the last three days reading the archives. Damn funny stuff, although it's difficult to describe. No overall story to speak of, basically a bunch of twentysomethings standing around talking about stuff. It's very witty, though, and surprisingly erudite. I noticed he made reference to Dune and the Baroque Cycle in the space of two comics and I was hooked.
Some favorites: Quantum Fetish Mechanics, Hot Topic is going to Sue Me, In Her Element
Oh, and "Happy Birthday, Grandma!"
You'll notice his artwork improves dramatically in only a couple of years, nowadays it's as good as anything I've seen on the web and ten times better looking than anything in print. Not the greatest comic ever (that would be Sluggy Freelance) but awesome. |
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| The Tool concert: aftermath |
[Sep. 17th, 2006|10:48 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  annoyed | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Stress - Jim's Big Ego | ] |
So the Tool concert started off pretty cool. We found the convention center easy enough, we only broke a couple of traffic laws and accidentally ended up in the wrong state by way of KC's ridiculously confusing Interstate system but still made it on time. Max borrowed a handicapped sticker from a friend of his, so we got rock star parking (more on that later). The line was HUGE. It wrapped around the building, and this was no small building. So we sigh, prepare ourselves for a couple of hours of waiting, and get in line. Then a security guard walks by and mentions there's another entrance to the building that apparently no one noticed. We walked straight in :) Total time in line: 3 minutes. There's a statement about the behavior of people in large crowds there somewhere.
We get inside and find our seats way the fuck up in the nosebleed section. In fact, we are so far away from the stage that when the drummer from the opening band is playing, there is a noticeable lag time in between seeing him hit the drum and hearing it. Not a big deal though. Here's where it starts to go downhill... what is it about people who cram themselves together into an arena like this, with hardly any space and no easy way to get away, that thinks it's perfectly cool to light up a cigarette? It was horrible. Everybody was smoking, there was no getting away from it, and the ventilation was practically nonexistent even though we were sitting directly underneath a vent. These two bitches sitting in front of us were chain smoking the entire time. I swear to god they went through at least six cigarettes in the space of an hour. My eyes were burning, I couldn't breathe and by the time we got our of there, my chest was in considerable pain from all of the second-hand smoke.
A few people were smoking weed, too, and honestly I way prefer that to tobacco. Weed smells gross but doesn't make my eyes water and throat sore like cigarettes do. Max, who was sitting in another section with Brandon and Erin, was having the same problems and almost walked out. But enough about the assholes at the concert.
Once the opening band left, they uncovered the stage for Tool, and one thing became very apparent: it was all white. Kind of strange, but once they started playing it became obvious why. Basically the entire stage was being used as a screen to project video and patterns onto synced up to the music, in addition to a bank of eight rear-projected screens, lasers and other light effects. It was the coolest thing, really the highlight of the show. During one song, the entire stage looked like it was engulfed in flames, an when they played Schism the music video was projected onto the center of the stage in between Adam and Justin. Maynard, like usual, was standing at the back of the stage to Danny's right. During another song, the stage was covered in colored squares that pulsed different patterns in time to the music. Really wish you guys could see it.
So, once the concert was over we head back to the car. Some guys in a bus had parked next to us, and some of them looked like they had been partying there for a while. None of us think anything of it, and get in the car. Just as we're pulling out of the space, there's a huge explosion and the sound of breaking glass. At first I thought someone had taken a baseball bat to the tail light or something. Someone had placed a full beer bottle directly underneath one of the front tires of the car. Aron luckily stopped quickly enough to prevent any damage, and we checked the tire thoroughly for glass. The guys next to us claimed innocence, but there were more identical beer bottles sitting behind their van. Fucking assholes.
So it was a good concert but not worth dealing with the other inconsiderate assholes who attended. |
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| (no subject) |
[Sep. 12th, 2006|02:08 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  melancholy | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Throw Down the Sword - Wishbone Ash | ] |
A lot has happened in the past month. Where to start.
Aron's leaving CompUSA, which has brought some very nasty problems to light regarding the company's on-site services. We're already going to be fucked over by the Apple store opening, and now our one and only advantage -- on-site service -- will be effectively nuetered, since CompUSA's contract technicians won't work on Apples. All of the business Aron's has been responsible for fostering will be forced to deal with what can only be called the russian roulette of tech service. Most of them will leave, and I can't blame them.
Our new GM, Dave, in addition to being mostly incompetant as a GM has decided to give Julie (the only person in the store who really knows operations) the cold shoulder. He and Brandon blindsided her with a sudden demotion back to Tech Manager, with Brandon taking her place as Sales Manager. I think Dave's trying to get her to leave through attrition, and she just might do it.
Aron gave me the business card of the guy who got him his new job, and I just called him today and will be going through that process. Who knows, maybe I will be moving on to better things soon although it took Aron since this March to find his job. Hopefully I can get out before Dave runs the store into the ground. This upcoming inventory should be interesting to say the least.
On a lighter note, I've been practicing the Bass Guitar a lot lately and find I really enjoy playing music. I've been nothing more than a passive listner before, it's fun to be on the other side of things. Not only just playing an instrument, I'm in a band as well. Although we have at least a year before we'll be performing for people, I can't wait.
Also, this Friday Aron and Laura, Brandon and Erin, Max and myself will be heading down to KC to see Tool. It's been four years since I've been to a Tool concert, and this time they will have a really awesome opening band named Isis. I'm bringing enough money to get a couple Isis albums and of course another Tool shirt. I think I'm going to try to get a shirt every time Tool releases an album. At the frequency I attend concerts, that should be just about doable. |
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| Why the hell is PS/2 still around? |
[Aug. 19th, 2006|07:51 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  tired | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Not if you were the last junkie on earth - The Dandy Warhols | ] |
I was standing at the bench in the Tech Shop the other day, and it struck me that every computer on the bench still has PS/2 as it's primary input ports. Why the hell do we still use PS/2? It sucks. You can't hot-plug devices and those little pins are a bitch to straighten if they get bent. How long ago did Apple switch to USB, 7 years? That's a ridiculously long time in computer years. Plus, if you got rid of the PS/2 ports you'd have room for four more USB ports.
And then I remembered the last time I plugged a USB mouse/keyboard into Windows XP:
ME: *plugs in keyboard*
COMPUTER: ...
COMPUTER: ...
ME: *click* *click* (nothing happens)
COMPUTER: ...
COMPUTER: Hey! I found new hardware!
ME: Yeah, no shit.
COMPUTER: ...
ME: *click* *click* (still nothing)
COMPUTER: ...
COMPUTER: Installing hardware!
COMPUTER: ...
ME: It's a fucking keyboard, how hard is this?
COMPUTER: ...
COMPUTER: Your hardware is now ready to use!
ME: Finally.
Maybe they're waiting for Vista to come out before they do away with legacy ports. Maybe USB will finally "just work" like with Apples. I don't think I'll hold my breath though. |
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| At long last |
[Aug. 9th, 2006|01:56 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | hopeful | ] |
The guy is going to come and put out bathroom floor in tomorrow. I am so ready for that ordeal to be over with. You have no idea what a luxury taking showers when you feel like it is. We moved into Aron's new house three months ago and it's taken us this long to find someone to put the bathroom floor in. The asshole shower guy kept postponing the install, which pushed back the floor and then the floor guy never showed so we had to find another one. But by the end of this week it will all be over, and I can stop worrying about not showering on weekends.
Unfortunatly this means I have to get up three hours earlier tomorrow. Ugh. Which reminds me, I'd better get to bed. |
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| And now for something completely different... |
[Aug. 7th, 2006|01:45 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  mischievous | ] |
Entry #1 in "random wikipedia entries that caught my interest"
Bukkake is the noun form of the Japanese verb bukkakeru (打っ掛けto dash [water]), and means simply "splash" or "dash." The compound verb can be decomposed into two verbs: butsu and kakeru. Butsu literally means to hit, but in this usage it appears to be an intensive prefix as in buttamageru (ぶったまげる"completely astonished") or butchigiri (ぶっちぎり"overwhelming win"). Kakeru in this context means to shower or pour. The word bukkake is often used in Japanese to describe pouring out water (or other liquids) with sufficient momentum to cause splashing.
Indeed, bukkake is used in Japan and Tanzania to describe a type of dish where the toppings are poured on top of noodles, as in bukkake-udon and bukkake-soba.
Betcha didn't know that.
...as for why was I searching for bukakke on wikipedia, I don't even remember. |
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