Wednesday, November 27, 2002

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Monday, November 25, 2002

post://85715708/

This music will make sure you're in the know:

Artist: Damone
Track: Frustrated Unnoticed
CD: From The Attic
Link: www.damone.net

Artist: Ash
Track: Shinning Light
(exclusive acoustic version)
CD: Free All Angels { buy it }
Link: www.kineticrecords.com

Artist:DJ ME DJ YOU
Track: People Together
CD: Can You See The House
Link: www.eeniemeenie.com

Artist: The Blood Group
Track: Pagans
CD: Volunteers
Link: www.magistery.com

Mr Monkey tell me what to do
Mr Monkey want to rule me
Mr Monkey, no, I won't do that
I will twiddle my thumbs in front of you.
BLAM! ...cause you don't got 'em.
posted @ 17:52

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Sunday, November 24, 2002

post://85711364/

Fri/Sat spent just lounging around, still trying to get the hang of Mortal Kombat Fatalities. Things are finally getting settled in my head. It's been a tough week keeping everything straight. Family is starting to call as it's near the holidays. First I hate to talk on the phone, second... I never have much to say - "...work, school, yah... video games, movies..." I must sound like a lifeless tart. How do I tell them I'm having the time of my life without being excited, lest I give something away. How could I be so excited about normal every day things... I never know how to respond: "yah - doing good, I'm having fun". It's not like I'm really successful or anything. My family only seems to have something to say when things are not going right. That's fine, silence is a good gangue of contentment... right?

CompUSA has a cheap HD on special today.
They've found out how to cut without hurting.
These things are kinda cool, for that lil goth on your list.
Mad scientists strike again.
Update: Some more info on those Bumfights guys.
posted @ 17:27

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Thursday, November 21, 2002

post://85701121/

You must see Kikoman!
This guy's convinced that he's found Saddam's Inbox.
There's some nice sun pictures added to the CNN Space Gallery.
If you've ever heard anything about the no talent hack known as Dr Phil then you'll find this funny.
You surely know that ninjas are sweet.
The Official Tori Amos web site.
The best Unofficial Tori Amos web site.
posted @ 12:28

post://85701053/

More fun with XBox yesterday -- I got Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, and MAN is it bloody! The styles are switchable, each person's got a weapon in one of the 'stances/styles' and similar moves between the stances. I was able to pull off a fatality completely by accident, and makes me want all the moves. I went to my buddy Jay's again, it's hard not to when he's online via cable modem (with a reasonable ping) and has a 42" Widescreen HD TV hooked to the XBox with component video. It's veeeeeery nice.

I got home late, didn't get as much sleep as I'd like, but I hardly see the guy so it was good to hang out.

I'm hoping for a quiet night at home tonight -- after picking up some much needed toilet paper and food, maybe snuggle up with a movie or something if it goes as planned. =]
posted @ 12:08

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Wednesday, November 20, 2002

post://85701002/

Well it's finally here! I went to go see Tori Amos @ the Tsongas arena in Lowell. It was a bit of a drive out towards Boston, but my little Tracer made it. It's tough driving with a governor... it shakes at anything over 80, so it took longer then usual. We got there about 6:15, tickets said 7:00. It wasn't horribly cold, but certainly nipply. Once they finally opened the doors they got around to telling those of us who waited at the front door that we needed to go around the side where the line was. 3 blocks later we reached the end of the line.

There was a very interesting guy who opened up. He was your traditional "guy with a guitar" but with a bonus orchestra at his toes. From what I could see he was wearing sandles and kept hitting keyboards and other effect buttons. He'd add in beats and sounds, a constant melody... very cool stuff. I'd recommend him, if I knew who he was.

Tori played a great show, I was enthralled the entire time.
Here's the set list.

The lights were great, went perfectly along with all the music -- flashes of light with the drums at points... very dramatic and emotional as Tori should be. The best part was near the end. She left, I was a little saddened that I didn't get to hear "Cornflake Girl" but clapped by heart out. She then came back out -- awesome, I'd gotten an encore before but this was just bonus! She did 3 songs - one of which was Cornflake girl! She left again... and we got her to come back out yet again for 2 more songs.

I left there very happy and satisfied that I'd finally seen one of my favorite artists in concert.

The complicated part of it all is that I made plans to go with someone a while back. Things have kind of tapered off since and it was more or less a "last outing" sort of thing. It's one of those "half-way" things where nothing is actually official, so you hate to make "an official statment"... or at least I did. We're sticking with the friends thing, it fits better, I think.
posted @ 01:10

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Tuesday, November 19, 2002

post://85690863/

XBox was fun, link cable was shoddy - hooked up the router, but with 1 too few ethernet cables we were dead in the water for internet multiplayer. We still had fun with some 2 x 2 (system link) and 4 player games on the new 42" 16:9 HD Hitachi. My TV does fine... but makes me wish for an HD.

I've gotten myself into a pickle of sorts. Details shall be spared for the sake of my sanity.
However, I must remember to sort things before jumping in. You're too busy trying to stay afloat when you attempt to do both. .:sigh:.
It's tough, because I know exactly what I need to do in one situation... and I'm totally lacking of anything to give for the unexpected, though (after I thought about it) completely obvious, issue at hand. What to say to what you promised... does that make "your word" invalid because something else came up? No, my excuse is their readiness... that they have a bit of a ways to go. I see my point and I can call my bullshit at the other. It's a valid reason, but it's such a tough call. It means that I did something completely unexpected, on the fly, and have to explain something that I've never (and am certainly not getting any closer to) been able to explain. Feelings are feelings, how do I explain so that I can still maintain my sanity, other's sense of self-worth, and my own comfort by allowing things to have some semblence of normality -- before I went and threw my wrenches, that is.

I also have to wonder how to phrase things, and I'll be thinking about it the whole time I'm waiting to say something. I just want it over and done with... out of my head. However for the sake of keeping the moment -- I'll refrain, for the time being. Crossing wires is hard, refrain not just for the good in your heart... for the simplicity it brings.
posted @ 02:45

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Monday, November 18, 2002

post://85689153/

Tonight is XBox night. I am stopping briefly at home to pick up the XBox, possibly a house mate or two... then off to video game fun. Here's a list of the 500 most powerful computers, Lennon's box up for grabs, and my cat loves you -- their cats hate you.
posted @ 16:39

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Sunday, November 17, 2002

post://85685802/

So this was a great weekend. XBox live is up and going, I bought Mech Assault and Unreal Championship. Unreal runs a tad choppy with 4 people -- I'm surprised. It also runs really slow online, but shooters are known for their need for good pings. I'll accept it until cable modem is within reach. Mech Warrior works ok though, no disconnects... and it's good to go if/when I bring it elsewhere for XBox Live parties. There's one tomarrow night, when I get out of work I'm going to my buddy Jay's house, he just got a new 43inch HD -- so we'll see how that works ^-^ There's another TV, I'm bringin the router, we'll hopefully be able to get up to 8 people at a time on a server with Unreal... 4 at a time with Mech Assault.
There's this nifty little thing @ RadioShack that's kinda like an XBox sphere, certainly reminicent of the "Okama Gamesphere".

Tori Amos concert is on Tuesday... and I have the day off. It should be fun, just got her new album and DVD, I've been basking in the Tori-glory. =]~

If you haven't heard of
or just haven't tried it out yet -- give it a shot! Free Trial! I love it, 3 movies out at a time... no late fees, drop it in a mailbox when you're done with it, movies right to your door...

posted @ 20:15

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Thursday, November 14, 2002

post://85676941/

Russel Crowe certainly does LUV FIGHTIN'!
A "not as funny as I make it out to be" work-name generator.
Abercrombie out // Walmart in?
Mainstream movies to stream
Rolling Stone's FU to Record Companies
Got Cancer? Might as well just give up.
posted @ 18:06

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Wednesday, November 13, 2002

post://85672619/

Want to buy a house?

posted @ 18:02

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Tuesday, November 12, 2002

post://85667312/

Ok... so a lot has been going on. I went to the Doctor on Thursday to get everything checked out. After the initial appointment he sent me off to go get x-rays. They took them, everything was ok... nothing major, muscular... but it would take a few days.
It's still bugging me, but feels like it's getting better. It certainly had me nervous for a bit... but glad it turned out to be ok.

I've been so occupied with my health that I didn't get to much else the past week. I took yesterday to do my laundry, come cleaning, and picking up. I got my DVD burner working, fixed the issue with video not showing up on the laptop correctly (overlays issue with the 3D card drivers, disabled overlays completely for both DVD & AVI), and burned my first few DVD-RWs (archived some DivX) and DVD-R. I made a South Park Season 6, Disc 1 & 2 with episodes 601-603, and 604-606. The quality is somewhat lame as they were smaller files... but it worked. It doesn't seem possible to scale the video quality to fit more on a disc. I might just need a more advanced program. They burn fairly quickly - about 15 to 20 minutes, and the ready-made templates make it easy to bust out a DVD with animated menus and nice graphics in no time. The media is expensive $10 & $15 a piece for DVD-R or RW media, but it's worth it and still cheap - considering. The DVD-R played no problem on the PS2, the XBox is also on the compatibility list for the drive so no worries there. All in all I'm pretty happy. I feel accomplished =]

Transworld Snowboarding for XBox is good -- very nice scenery, interesting control scheme (grabs are on the right stick, pressure sensitive), and the tracks are a nice design with lots of alternative routes. There's a "goal"-oriented progression, much like Tony Hawk. You have to achieve a certain number of objectives to unlock the next level. Maybe it's the fact that I'm stuck, but it's not fun like SSX Tricky, but maybe that's due to playing SSX Tricky so much. It's better multiplayer -- but that always depends how much the person you're playing against has played it.
I'm still not fully decided on it...
posted @ 13:34

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Wednesday, November 06, 2002

post://85647436/

I'm singing! Yay! ...and really tired. I'm hot, I'm cold, I'm hot and cold. I'm short of breath. I have a really bad pain in my back... but it's not my back. I try and touch the muscle, but it's no muscles on my back -- like an itch I can't reach. I'm avoiding getting it checked out, though I think I'll make an appointment this evening. I know what it is, I think. I might just be overly worried and paranoid because it happened so many times before, but it's certainly not going away. I have too many things to take care of... I have to teach a training class tomarrow. It's nothing big, new procedures and stuff here @ work... but I need to be here at least. I just had an issue come up with my attendance, I really don't need this right now.

I hope I'm jumping the gun, that it's a muscle or bone in my back... I keep trying to ignore it, but it doesn't help. I wish I had someone to help me, but it's mainly just me... and I have to do what I need to do to make sure it's not what I think it is.

Distract yourself with these fun links of fun::
Tom Petty is cool shit.
Get a shirt, or something.
Warfare 2002: remote death machines
Warfare 2002: tanks with self-healing skin (armor)
Warfare 2002: army proves anti-artillery laz-er effective
posted @ 16:49

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Tuesday, November 05, 2002

post://85642216/

We have a Halloween costume contest at work every year, here's my picture from this year -- I won! I got a free thermal coffee mug & $15 in gift certificates to Dunkin' Donuts. Yay!
I was listening to Stern yesterday morning, he was off on a rant about how homosexuality is psychological, that there's no physiological (physical, chemical, dna) difference between a gay individual and a straight individual. Today I came accross this article on sheep, that has to do with rams who exclusively court and mate with other rams... not the bi-rams that we're all familiar with...
posted @ 13:33

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Monday, November 04, 2002

post://85637894/

You might have a buncha money somewhere...
There's an interesting bit about The United State's view on the whole Israel/Palestine thing in this news article.
posted @ 12:34

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Sunday, November 03, 2002

post://85635084/

Remember the good old days of "Mozilla"?
Mmmmmmm... fresh... batch... of antimatter...
Ovulating women want a real man!
Jesus was probably not a mushroom junkie.
I grabbed this story for it's use of the word "hactivist" (an activist who activates by hacking). Here's the same story on MSN.
Here's a silly little "what would you have done if you lived back then" quiz.
posted @ 17:50

post://85635044/

I had no need to fear... fun came to me. I got home Halloween night to find a kegger already in progress. I called a few friends and we hung out till the wee hours of the morning. A few of them weren't all that well for the morning, but... comes with the territory. I was surprised at the number of people that came... many left early, but it was a Thursday - after all.

Friday was a good night at home, hung out with the house-mates, got Unreal 2003 going... nothing too exciting, but a good night none-the-less. Saturday I went to go see The Ring - whew. I recommend it, highly -- watch it, live it, love it!
I was glad because it wasn't one of those "ooooh! I'm scary!" or one of those "self-aware horror movies" (ex: Scream) It was a lot of psychological stuff, very real, surreal -- in a NIN video sort of way. It certainly wasn't what I expected, and a few images have been burned into my head.

Here I am on Sunday somewhat pondering what I'm doing with the whole relationship thing... there's some hurdles, and I wonder if it's really worth all the trouble. Not because it's not worth it in the end, but because there's plenty of opportunities at my age. I have been through a similar situation before and it took a lot out of my life. I think I was too involved in that case and I wonder about this one. I want to be able to give my all, say that I'll do anything... but sometimes there's just nothing that one person can do beyond being there for someone. If that's not enough -- then what? I'm glad they've remained nameless at this point because it makes it easier. I really want things to work out for the best, keep hoping, but then something happens and I'm at a loss as to what to do.

My laptop has made me mad. I have yet to investigate it fully... might be Windows Media Player, I don't believe it's version 9 - as I've heard some tricky things about that version... but it seems to do video in an "overlay" fashion. I was playing an AVI and it was acting like I was playing a DVD. The output to TV showed up fine, all my windows... media player, etc... and then the actual AVI that was playing showed on the laptop screen... but didn't make it onto the TV. The sound was there but the video was just a black square. I tried so hard to get it all to work, had people waiting on it... queued up the videos to watch and... nada. I am calling to complain, I'll return it... I'll do it, especially since I've seen Vaio's with DVD-RW drives for $200 less then I paid for this one, same speed and generally the same features with a few other bonuses. It's just too much to pay if it doesn't do what I want.

Sidenote:: bought a DVD-R/RW/+R/CDRW/CD-R Sony drive, overnight shipping - should be here on Tuesday. =] This might get around my video problems, but I still want my videos to be able to be displayed on a TV, it's just the principle of the thing.
posted @ 17:29

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