Thursday, July 25, 2002

Going back to that picture of a snakefish I posted earlier... Is the guy holding the fish Kurt Loder? I swear it's him.
11:50:37 PM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

I'm getting bored with Boston...I've lived in the Boston metro area for all my life, excepting college. This place is f'n expensive, and it's not what I always thought it was. I need to leave this country. Montreal's been my fantasy destination of choice - it's only 5 hours away but completely different. I like it up there. It's colder.
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The Quotable James Traficant. For the non-U.Sians not in the know, James Traficant is the embattled U.S. Congressman who was put on trial by Congress and then expelled July 24 for taking bribes and kickbacks. The following are quotes from his Congressional hearing. [kuro5hin.org] It's a shame this man won't be representing Ohio any more. He represented everything I found annoying about that state. My upstairs neighbors have a weird tendency to do carpentry at 8am on Saturdays. Just now, they were yelling and there were a couple VERY loud slams on my ceiling/their floor. Loud enough that I actually worried there might be some collapsing going on. Eek.

6:26:33 PM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

I hope the stability issues with blogs.salon.com will be ironed out...it's a little frustrating.
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MPAA Requests Immunity to Commit Cyber-Crimes [Slashdot] The scary thing is that the MPAA really DOES want to get away with hacking your computer. I'm going to head home now. I've got Prince's 'I Would Die 4 U' stuck in my head and it's blocking out all attempts at doing work.
4:18:14 PM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

Ok - I promise to never spend 30 minutes of my life organizing ESPN survey data again. I swear.
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Random stuff I cooked up from ESPN's SportsNation survey. 40,000 sports fans surveyed nationwide, blah, blah. The fun stuff for me right now is NBA stats...the three most popular NBA teams in the country are the Lakers, with 12%, the Celtics, at 9%, and the Knicks also at 9%. I got bored and broke it down by state. The Lakers are the most popular team in 12 states, the Celtics are the most popular in 8, and then two teams are tied with 3: the Dallas Mavericks (with Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas), and the Minnesota Timberwolves (with Minnesota, South and North Dakota). The Celtics simply dominate New England - Every state except Connecticut has the Celtics as their favorite team. Of those five states, only Vermont had less than 2/3 fans saying the Celts were their favorite team (44%). Rhode Island sits at 68%, Maine at 73%, New Hampshire at 76%, and Massachusetts at 79%. Only the Timberwolves (with 73% in Minnesota) and the Milwaukee Bucks (with 70% in Wisconsin) come close to those numbers. Wow, do we worship our Celtics. =)

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From MTV to the Taliban. Bruce Springsteen and Patti Smith are writing songs about terrorists and the Taliban. So why is country maverick Steve Earle getting all the heat? [Salon Headlines] Why? Because Steve Earle's song is the first out of the gate - and the most blatant and intelligent piece of cultural criticism of the American mainstream we've seen post Sept. 11.
2:22:59 PM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

So there's this truly gorgeous girl who works in my office. And I do mean gorgeous - especially her smile. Great, great smile. You don't see those often enough. I do my best to walk by her cubicle whenever I can - conveniently, it's on one of the two paths I can take to get from the bathroom to my cube. And I never say a word to her. That's just annoying - why can't I say SOMETHING? At some point? Maybe I should try to sit down at her table at lunch some day. Or maybe I'll wait until I'm assigned to work on her project. It's going to happen at some point in the next couple months. I dunno. This is still my single biggest weakness - meeting people. Damn. I need to get out more often. On a brighter note that should help with the getting out more often, it looks like the ingrown toenail that's been bothering me off and on for the last 3 or 4 months is just about kaput. FINALLY.

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Check out Kathleen Donohue's blog. Compares decades to comic book superhero universes - and is RIGHT about it. Damn. Color me impressed...
1:48:11 PM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

now listening to ( Outkast, Stankonia )
1:44:23 PM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

Well, I'm bored with the French now. It was just silly. Except for the title - I actually rather like that.
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US sides with Axis of Evil to thwart UN torture protocol. The UN's Economic and Social Council passed yesterday a new, important instrument: the draft Optional Protocol to the UN convention against torture. Voting against it (or actively opposing it) we've got the usual suspects (China, Egypt, Cuba, Saudi Arabia) and, guess what, the US. [kuro5hin.org] Comme mentionné avant. J'aime l'Amérique tellement. Bon article.

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En dépit des taunts constants par des milliers de spectateurs français, la lance Armstrong est toujours dans le premier endroit dans l'excursion De France. Je dois faire sortir un coup-de-pied de ceci. Je ne peux pas l'aider. Lance
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Ainsi j'ai décidé de signaler des entrées d'un couple ici en français. Naturellement, je n'ai pas écrit les Français moi-même - j'ai écrit ceci en anglais et alors envoyé lui par Babelfish. Je me demande juste comment absurde ceci retentira... Babelfish Oh ouais - si n'importe qui hors de là qui parle français veut critiquer la traduction, veuillez, avancer =)
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When you're smoking, the cigarettes tell you many lies, including this one: "If you ever stop, you won't be able to do the things you love to do." Well, needless to say, I can write prose without smoking, I've proved that right here on Scripting News. I haven't tried to write code yet without it, but I'm sure I can do that too. [Scripting News] Been there...I have yet to prove I can write papers without smoking, but hey, I'm out of college. I don't NEED to write papers any more. WOO! Nicotine free for...what, nearly 7 months now? Yeah. Wow.

12:46:58 PM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

This rules. Chicks With Sticks The movie. They've got a trailer. They've got the following tagline - Boys fight to show off. Girls fight to kill. I am in love.
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ACLU Files New DMCA Challenge [Slashdot] News.Com: ACLU to put DMCA on Trial. "I don't want to go to jail," said Edelman, who graduated from Harvard in June, and who plans to study law there this fall. "I want to go to law school."   [Scripting News] Wanna know these things before they get blogged? Check http://www.politechbot.com Declan McCullagh's kickass mailing list/website...
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ACLU vs. DMCA - yet again The plaintiff here is a 22 year old programmer who has been studying filtering software and would like to crack the lists of 'naughty' websites most filtering packages use. Perfect - two Bad Things getting whacked by one lawsuit. I Heart ACLU.
10:17:18 AM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

For some reason, I was absolutely convinced that Tom Sizemore was in every major war movie of the last five years. I was wrong. He's in every melodramatic, big-budget war movie of the last five years. Though I did like Black Hawk Down. http://us.imdb.com/Name?Sizemore,+Tom Some great tidbits lifted from the Tom Sizemore trivia/bio page there... 'Trained for six weeks with high-powered weaponry for Heat.' That explains a lot, really. 'May 2002 - Split from 'Hollywood Madam' Heidi Fleiss' When I found out that he was engaged to Heidi Fleiss, I laughed a lot. For some reason, that entertained me a LOT. I don't know why, though.

9:57:27 AM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

I love demon fish.
9:56:21 AM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

Chicken Little learns to forecast. Over the last few years, the news media has had more and more opportunity to report on a certain class of events that could lead to the 'End of the World' as we know it.  These opportunities are not born of conspiracy theories, religious Armageddon, or ancient prophecies.  They are based upon the hard work of many astronomers hunting for large rocks traveling about the sun at high speed on paths that can intersect our world. The level of alarm in recent stories has generally been trending downward among the more reputable news sites.  The level of exposure to these stories among the general public has been trending upwards.  In the interests of understanding for everyone involved, a lesson for learning to read the forecast is provided here. [kuro5hin.org] Bah. We're all fucked come late 2012 when the Mayan calendar runs out.

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New Hockenheim wins Schu approval [BBC World] Now that I've read this story, it's less entertaining, but the title itself is just weird. You really have to be into your formula one to divine the article's content from the title... New Hockenheim? There's a joke in that somewhere. I swear.
8:21:56 AM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

America frightens me. A lot. Check this out. Another blog described this (appropriately) as the Tom Ridge Jugend. And I quote... 'Billed as one of the nation's first "homeland security training summer camps for teenagers," a program called Secure Corps in Bucks County is drilling 92 young men and women in essential skills for this new, uncertain era.' How long until they find their Horst Wessel?
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True Porn Clerk Stories [bOing bOing] Actually, this is a link to a link. Check the actual content - funny stuff. Quality writing as well.
8:11:16 AM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

Every morning, I wake up between 6 and 6:30am. I've tried moving that earlier, but if I do manage to wake up around 5:30, I'm exhausted all day long, no matter when I fell asleep. It's weird - I generally fall asleep around 11:30pm to 12:30am, and am fine waking up at my normal time, but if I go to bed at 10pm and wake up at 5:30, I'm thrown off all day. I'm still confused by that. But anyway - back to my point. My roommate wakes up at 6:30am every day, on the button. He then gets in the bathroom and doesn't leave for about half an hour. He's very picky about this - he'll be late for work if he gets into the bathroom for his shower, shave, etc... late. So I wake up, come out to the living room, and grab the laptop and go online. 'cos, y'see, my 15 minutes in the bathroom piss him off. This may be the only area where my roommate's sometime anal-retentiveness gets on my nerves, though, so I guess I shouldn't really complain.

7:15:23 AM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

Nothing Personal is funny, funny shit. It's like People magazine with actual working brain cells. Where else could you find quotes like 'I want to do it for my kids, because I don't want to die, basically.' from Pamela Anderson, on her hep C treatment? The column continues to entertain me with the weirdness of celebrities, but also remind me that most of them are actually human at the core of it all, like that quote from Pam Big Breasts. Some of them are still blatantly not human, though. Take a look at the Laura Bush quote. Eek.

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Actually, Keith Olbermann's column was pretty damned good - even if he did pick on Nomar. In return for such a quality column, Keith, I promsie never to bring up your mother getting hit in the head by a Knoblauch-launched baseball again. Unless it's absolutely neccessary. I'm sure you understand. =)
6:46:09 AM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

US halts talks after Korean battle [BBC World] On a related note - this is a bit old (ok, it's actually three weeks old), but it just makes me think...we were talking with the Axis of Evil in the first place? If we're negotiating with North Korea, what's next? Talks with Doctor Doom? What's that? He's not in the Axis of Evil? Well, then it's not a very comprehensive Axis of Evil, now, is it?
6:40:49 AM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

N Korea 'regrets' deadly naval clash [BBC World] And this is part two... Consistency, people!
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N Korea threatens more naval clashes [BBC World] This is part one...
6:37:48 AM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

Keith Olbermann. Salon's new columnist looks at what the upcoming baseball strike and "Sex and the City" tell us about the looming one-year anniversary. [Salon Headlines] My first reaction? 'Keith Olbermann? Eh.' My second reaction? 'Hey, I remember when Chuck Knoblauch threw the ball into the stands and hit Olbermann's mom. That was funny.' I'm so not a good person. Sorry, Keith.
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The K Chronicles. Dear world: Sorry about all this. Most of us didn't vote for him. [Salon.com] How painfully right this comic is.
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