2007-06-21

No wonder kids play video games

Everything I did as a kid is now waaaaaaay too dangerous. We all know about playing alone outside, bike riding without a helmet, skateboarding, arc welding and petting stray dogs ... but now ... from the joy that is Health Day News ... digging holes in the sand can kill:
Digging Holes in the Sand Can Be Deadly
06.20.07, 12:00 AM ET

WEDNESDAY, June 20 (HealthDay News) -- Digging that hole to China on a sandy beach is a summertime rite of passage for many kids. But a new report reveals that those holes -- even fairly shallow ones -- can collapse and kill.

By sifting through news reports and other sources, researchers found 52 cases of sand-hole collapses in the United States and three other countries -- Australia, Great Britain and New Zealand. Sixty percent of the victims -- 31 people -- died, while many of the others needed rescuing and CPR.

There may be many more cases that weren't reported, said report co-author Dr. Bradley Maron, an internal medicine resident at Boston University Medical Center. "We're trying to increase awareness of something that's generally not associated with a life-threatening event," he said. When people are on the beach, "their concern for safety is directed toward the water," he noted.
So, as I said, no wonder kids today stay in the house and play video games. They can't do anything else.

2007-06-16

Happy Father's Day!

To all you Dad's out there ...

Happy Father's Day.

Me being me, well, I got the coolest gift I could receive:


This thing's AWESOME!

And after my day at the Pittsburgh Air Show lugging around my old shoulder bag, this thing will make Comfest significantly easier on my back, which is hurting today!

Oh, and there's a flippin' tri-pod holder on one side; and a drink holder on the other. HELLS YEAH! :D And there's a LAPTOP sleeve, too. OH SNAP this thing rocks!


2007-06-11

2007 Comfest Schedule ... FINALLY

Um ... rarely have I waited so long for so little.

2007 Comfest Schedule = Y.A.W.N.

Here's where I'll be ...

Friday - June 22 (maybe)
6:00 - Leah Carla Gordone - Gazebo Stage
8:00 - Willie Phoenix - Gazebo Stage

Saturday - June 23
4:00 - Miranda Sound - Offramp Stage
5:00 - Stretch Lefty - Bozo Stage
6:35 - Sadie Thomas - Solar Stage
8:15 - Megan Palmer & The Hopefuls - Gazebo Stage

Sunday - June 24
4:25 - X-Rated Cowboys - Offramp Stage
8:00 - Aaron Tashjian - Gazebo Stage

I think this is the thing that pisses me off the most about Comfest's schedule this year:

Schedule Conflicts.

There are THREE acts I'd like to see Friday - they play at the same time.

Jen Miller
Leah Carla Gordone
Elliot 12Trees

Sunday ... 8:00 p.m. ... ditto.

Aaron Tashjian
The Receiver
The Spikedrivers

Damn. I need clones. Who can help?

The Geek Dictionary ...

Not an original list ... but worth sharing.


404:
Someone who is clueless. From the Web error message, "404 Not Found," which means the document requested couldn't be located. "Don't bother asking John. He's 404."

Adminisphere: The rarified organizational layers above the rank and file that makes decisions that are often profoundly inappropriate or irrelevant.

Alpha Geek: The most knowledgeable, technically proficient person in an office or work group. "I dunno, ask Rick. He's our alpha geek."

Assmosis: Remember "Osmosis" The process by which some people seem to absorb success and advancement by kissing up to the boss rather than working hard.

Batmobiling: Putting up emotional shields. Refers to the retracting armor that covers the Batmobile as in "she started talking marriage and he started batmobiling."

Beepilepsy: The brief seizure people sometimes suffer when their beepers go off, especially in vibrator mode. Characterized by physical spasms, goofy facial expressions, and stopping speech in mid- sentence.

Betamaxed: When a technology is overtaken in the market by inferior but better marketed competition as in "Microsoft betamaxed Apple right out of the market."

Blamestorming: A group discussion of why a deadline was missed or a project failed and who was responsible.

Blowing Your Buffer: Losing one's train of thought. Occurs when the person you are speaking with won't let you get a word in edgewise or has just said something so astonishing that your train gets derailed. "Damn, I just blew my buffer!" (Synonym: "Head Crash").

Body Nazis: Hard-core exercise and weight-lifting fanatics who look down on anyone who doesn't work out obsessively.

Bookmark: To take note of a person for future reference. "After seeing his cool demo at Siggraph, I bookmarked him."

Brain Fart: A byproduct of a bloated mind producing information effortlessly; a burst of useful information. "I know you're busy on the Microsoft story, but can you give us a brain fart on the Mitnik bust?" Variation of old hacker slang that had more negative connotations.

CGI Joe: A hard-core CGI script programmer with all the social skills and charisma of a plastic action figure.

Chainsaw Consultant: An outside expert brought in to reduce the employee head count, leaving the top brass with clean hands.

Chip Jewelry: Old computers destined to be scrapped or turned into decoration. "I paid three grand for that Mac and now it's nothing but chip jewelry."

Chips and Salsa: Chips = hardware, salsa = software. "First we gotta figure out if the problem's in your chips or your salsa."

CLM (Career Limiting Move): Used by microserfs to describe an ill- advised activity. "Trashing your boss while he or she is within earshot is a serious CLM."

Cobweb: A WWW site that never changes.

Crapplet: A badly written or profoundly useless Java applet. "I just wasted 30 minutes downloading that crapplet!"

CROP DUSTING: Surreptitiously farting while passing thru a cube farm, then enjoying the sounds of dismay and disgust; leads to PRAIRIE DOGGING.

Cube Farm: An office filled with cubicles.

Dead Tree Edition: The paper version of a publication available in both paper and electronic forms.

Dilberted: To be exploited and oppressed by your boss, as is Dilbert, the comic strip character. "Damn, I've been dilberted again! The old man revised the specs for the fourth time this week."

Dorito Syndrome: The feeling of emptiness and dissatisfaction triggered by addictive substances that lack nutritional content. "I just spent six hours surfing the Web, and now I've got a bad case of Dorito Syndrome."

Egosurfing: Scanning the Net, databases, etc., for one's own name.

Elvis Year: The peak year of popularity as in "1993 was Barney the dinosaur's Elvis year."

Flight Risk: Used to describe employees who are suspected of planning to leave a company or department soon.

Generica: Fast food joints, strip malls, sub-divisions as in "we were so lost in generica that I couldn't remember what city it was."

Glazing: Corporate-speak for sleeping with your eyes open; a popular pastime at conferences and early-morning meetings. "Didn't he notice that by the second session half the room was glazing?"

Going Postal: Totally stressed out and losing it like postal employees who went on shooting rampages.

GOOD job: A "Get-Out-Of-Debt" job. A well-paying job people take in order to pay off their debts, one that they will quit as soon as they are solvent again.

Gray Matter: Older, experienced business people hired by young entrepreneurial firms trying to appear more professional and established.

Graybar Land: The place you go while you're staring at a computer that's processing something very slowly (while you watch the gray bar creep across the screen). "That CAD rendering put me in graybar land for like an hour."

High Dome: Egghead, scientist, PhD

Idea Hamsters: People whose idea generators are always running.

Irritainment: Entertainment and media spectacles that are annoying, but you find yourself unable to stop watching them. The O.J. trials were a prime example.

It's a Feature: From the old adage, "It's not a bug, it's a feature." Used sarcastically to describe an unpleasant problem you wish to gloss over.

Keyboard Plaque: The disgusting buildup of dirt and crud found on some people's computer keyboards.

Link Rot: The process by which web page's links become obsolete as the sites they're connected to change or die.

Meatspace: The physical world (as opposed to the virtual) also "carbon community" "facetime" "F2F" "RL."

Mouse Potato: The online generation's answer to the couch potato.

Ohnosecond: That minuscule fraction of time during which you realize you've just made a terrible error.

Open-Collar Workers: People who work at home or telecommute.

Percussive Maintenance: The fine art of whacking the crap out of an electronic device to get it to work again.

Perot: To quit unexpectedly. "My cellular phone just perot'ed."

Plug-and-Play: A new hire who doesn't require training. "That new guy is totally plug-and-play."

Prairie Dogging: When something loud happens in a cube farm, causing heads to pop up over the walls trying to see what's going on.

Ribs 'N' Dick: A budget with no fat as in "we've got ribs 'n' dick and we're supposed to find 20K for memory upgrades."

Salmon Day: The experience of spending an entire day swimming upstream only to get screwed in the end. "God, today was a total salmon day!"

Seagull Manager: A manager who flies in, makes a lot of noise, shits over everything and then leaves.

Siliwood: The coming convergence of movies, interactive TV and computers; also "Hollywired."

SITCOMs: What yuppies turn into when they have children and one of them stops working to stay home with the kids. "Single Income, Two Children, Oppressive Mortgage."

Square-Headed Spouse: Computer.

Squirt the Bird: To transmit a signal up to a satellite. "Crew and talent are ready...what time do we squirt the bird?"

Starter Marriage: A short-lived first marriage that ends in divorce with no kids, no property and no regrets.

Stress Puppy: A person who thrives on being stressed-out and whiny.

Swiped Out: An ATM or credit card that has been used so much its magnetic strip is worn away.

Tourists: Those who take training classes just to take a vacation from their jobs. "There were only three serious students in the class; the rest were just tourists."

Treeware: Hacker slang for documentation or other printed material.

Umfriend: One with whom one has a sexual relationship; as in, "this is Dale, my...um...friend."

Under Mouse Arrest: Getting busted for violating an online service's rule of conduct. "Sorry I couldn't get back to you. AOL put me under mouse arrest."

Uninstalled: Euphemism for being fired. Also: decruitment.

2007-06-06

Random Links and shit

Because I'm not feeling like writing but have things to share ... enjoy:

If you like sports and movies ... check this gem of a graduation speech that is comprised of nothing but lines from sports movies.

If you like LOST ... check out this amazing recap of Season 3 done in Innernets speak.

If you're like me and think $2 for a large coffee at Dunkin Donuts beats the hell out of anything at all from Starbucks (a.k.a. Four Bucks), welcome to my church.

This is, without a doubt, the funniest thing to come out of Wisconsin. Imagine a street-fight battle-to-the-death between the characters of Star Wars and the Peanuts Gang. This guy did it. Read here. (for the record ... does anyone have anything else funny from Wisconsin other than the "Bong Recreation Area" (it's a real place)?

John Moe takes on Billy Joel's "Piano Man" in his latest "Pop Song Correspondence."

If you happen to do things like download movies, music, or anything else that, um, might get you noticed ... here are some tips to do it a little stealthier. Personally, I'd use 1 and 5. If I were to do such things.

I'll be one of six people watching the Stanley Cup playoffs tonight.

And finally ... as part of USAToday's on-going self-congratulatory 25-year anniversary, here are their Top 25 Things that have disappeared in the past 25 years.

Better late than never

Well, between work, school and ... well ... my new TV addiction of "Dead Like Me" ... I've not had much to blog about.

But "Dead Like Me" is a great show!

I love TV on DVD.

2007-06-04

Well, there goes my vote

Looks like I have a valid reason NOT to vote Hillary in 2008.

2007-05-31

This would be funny ...

... the part highlighted in red ... the comment from vooch21 ... if it wasn't true.

Stolen from ESPN.com


(click the picture for a full-size view)


I've watched both games of the Stanley Cup Finals. And they are entertaining ... hell, Game 2 scoreless for 55 minutes ... there's NOTHING more exciting than a 0-0 hockey game, if you're a fan and understand the sport.

And the games have been fast-paced and hard-hitting, but as Vooch21 pointed out ... and it's sad to say ... the NHL blew their shot in the mid 90's at becoming the third-most-watched sport in the US and is probably ... right now ... ninth ... behind NFL, NCAA Football, MLB, NCAA Basketball, the NBA, NASCAR, MMA and Poker, with soccer coming up close.

I think it's time for Gary Bettman to go back to the NBA where he came from. He's done David Stern's bidding and killed the NHL in America.

2007-05-26

Oh yes, he did.


Ladies and Gentlemen ... the winner, by knockout at 1:53 of the very first round .... and NEW UFC Light Heavyweight Champion ...

Quinton "Rampage Jackson

(I was 1-for-4 on the other picks, but I got Rampage right!)

Next up for Rampage ... a MAJOR confrontation with Pride Middleweight and Light Heavyweight Champion Dan "Hollywood" Henderson to see who the best 205-pound MMA fighter in the world is.

What's funny - six months ago everyone was expecting Chuck Liddell and Vanderlai Silva to be the two in that dream matchup.

Funny how things change.

2007-05-25

Talk about life imitating art

This is some serious muthafuckin snakes trying to get on a muthfuckin plane. Damn.

From CNN:

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- Customs officers at Cairo's airport have detained a man bound for Saudi Arabia who was trying to smuggle 700 live snakes on a plane, airport authorities said.

The officers were stunned when a passenger, identified as Yahia Rahim Tulba, told them his carryon bag contained live snakes after he was asked to open it.

Tulba opened his bag to show the snakes to the police and asked the officers, who held a safe distance, not to come close. Among the various snakes, hidden in small cloth sacks, were two poisonous cobras, authorities said.

The Egyptian said he had hoped to sell the snakes in Saudi Arabia. Police confiscated the snakes and turned Tulba over to the prosecutor's office, accusing him of violating export laws and endangering the lives of other passengers.

According to the customs officials, Tulba claimed the snakes are wanted by Saudis who display them in glass jars in shops, keep them as pets or sell them to research centers.

The value of the snakes was not immediately known.


UFC 71 ... join me at BW3's

Soooo .... if you're bored on Saturday ... I'll be at the BW3's in Austintown watching UFC 71 ... where Quinton "Rampage" Jackson *should* take the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship off of Chuck "The Iceman" Liddell.

WHAT?

Yeah, I said it. I see Chuck going down.

For some of the same reasons that Rampage demolished Liddell in 2003 when they fought in Pride's 2003 Middleweight GP Semi-Finals (Pride considers the 205-pound weight class Middleweight; UFC considers it Light Heavyweight). Rampage took Liddell to task ... he beat his ass. Rampage is a top-notch striker who can take the fury from Chuck as he works his way inside for the trademark Rampage Slam. Just like he did in Japan.

I see that happening again.

Because Rampage is deep inside Chuck's head ... and so is Chuck's hype.

Chuck wants revenge for the only loss he has yet to avenge. He's been unstoppablesince the loss to Rampage ... and has avenged two of his three losses (Randy Couture and Jeremy Horn) and has been pretty much invincible ... and he's the poster child of the UFC ... on the cover of Sports Illustrated, and all the sports talk shows ... everyone talking about how great he is ... all of which leads to over confidence.

The four other fights on the main event card also have some great match-ups, too:

Terry Martin Vs. Ivan Salaverry
Match-up of two old-timers ... Salaverry is hit or miss ... he's either really good or really bland. Terry Martin can stone cold knock a bitch out. I see Salaverry getting KTFO'd, unless he can get Martin down and submit him. Nope, Martin. KO.

Josh Burkman Vs. Karo Parisyan
This is my choice for the show-stealer ... Karo "The Heat" versus "The People's Warrior." I have no idea which way this will go ... Burkman's a fighter, but Parisyan is a Judo master who can throw Buicks if needed. Styles make fights ... and I see Parisyan trying to stand with Burkman, which is a bad idea. Why? Well, here's a highlight from Burkman's Q&A:

Q: What is your favorite technique?
A: Punching people in the face."

Houston Alexander Vs. Keith Jardine
Jardine ... who was knicknamed "KlanMan" by Rebecca and I when he was on the Ultimate Fighter (he has that White Supremacist look about him). His opponent is a black man from East St. Louis, IL ... where race is a way of life. Alexander is making his UFC debut, but he is 6-1 in his MMA career. I see Jardine putting a beating on Alexander like he did Forrest Griffin in what yet another surprise in what has been an eventful year for favorites in the UFC. Alexander likes to punch, so this will be a stand-up war until someone falls down.

Kalib Starnes Vs. Chris Leben
I'm no fan of Chris Leban and his mouth writing checks his body can't cash, but at least he's not a whiny bitch like Kalib "I broke my rib" Starnes. I see Leban beating down Starnes like the whiny bitch he is. And I see Starnes crying all the way back to Canada, while Leban runs his mouth until his next beatdown against real competition.

There ... now we'll find out Sunday if I was right or wrong! Or ... Saturday ... if you're joining me.

2007-05-20

Dumbasses in the News

Dumbasses in the News:

Evonne D. Maurice apparently wanted to get away in style.

The 22-year-old pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court to trying to rob a bank at a drive-up window while traveling in a hired limousine. Authorities said Maurice had a limousine take her to a Citizens Bank branch in Cranston and told the driver she needed to withdraw cash to pay for the ride.

Then she walked up to the window and handed the teller an envelope with a note demanding money and saying there were two bombs in the bank. The teller triggered an alarm, and Maurice got back in the limo without any money and was driven away.


A thief fleeing a jewelry store was killed when his bicycle was struck by a bus, police said.

Authorities said the 42-year-old man snatched a $2,000 gold chain from the Bronx jewelry store on Friday and was making his getaway. A store clerk and two bystanders were chasing the man on foot when he pedaled into an intersection and was hit by a fast-moving bus, police said.

The suspect was taken to a hospital, where he died from head injuries. Five passengers who were jostled when the bus slammed on its brakes were also examined at the hospital.

"He lost his life for $2,000," said the store's owner, Lakhwinder Singh. "He'd sell it for maybe only two or three hundred. That makes no sense."

The necklace was still missing, and may have been thrown from the scene or grabbed by a bystander after the accident.



2007-05-17

Song of the Day

Beating of Your Heart
~ Minus Ted

And in the end you look for answers
Scribbled on the entries for the days
We grew weary like to dancers
And we both left the stage
But only fools can give life meaning
Sometimes love just goes away
Feel like a man leaning into the tide
When you try to make love stay
And it won't stay

Each somebody needs a someone
That's one way we are the same
To be a love you must become one
And you cannot play games

With the beating of a heart
The beating of a heart

Pick up
And move on down the raising river of your life
And try to make a start
With just the beating of your heart

Now all my friends say I'm much brighter
Much easier to be around
And I must say I'm feeling lighter
Sometimes my feet don't touch the ground
When I walk through the town
It all comes down to moving forward
It's either that or you're standing still
But getting used to feeling awkward after changes
So deep, is an act of will

Each somebody needs a someone
That's one way we are the same
To be a love you must become one
And you cannot play games

With the beating of a heart
Each somebody needs a someone
That's one way we are the same
To be a love you must become one
And you cannot play games

With the beating of a heart
The beating of a heart

Pick up
And move on down the raising river of your life
And try to make a start
With just the beating of your heart
Just the beating of your heart
Just the beating of your heart

2007-05-16

Random Thoughts

So I'm on a 3-hour conference call ... yeah. Time for some random thoughts:

Quote of the day: "Using windows products is like being ass raped by a ghost. Your ass sure hurts but you just can't see where the pain is coming from."

I've recently started playing with Ubuntu (well, actually Ubuntustudio cause it has all the cool multimedia apps nerds like me dig) and I gotta tell you ... it's quite impressive. The download links for Ubuntustudio are up and down because it's getting hammered ... if you want a copy of the regular or souped up version, lemme know. It's easy load, and absolutely free, and secure and solid and an amazing operating system. If you just like to surf the web, email and do some word processing ... it's quite the thing for you.

Also started using Opera 9.2 as my primary browser on Windows ... and it rocks as well. It browses significantly faster with multimedia, chat and regular browsing than Internet Exploder 7 or Firefox ... as well as a very kick-ass thing called Speed Dial that allows you to park your favorite websites for quick loading. And all sorts of other features. And yeah, that browser on the Nintendo Wii ... that's Opera.

Have a couple of new blogs I'm reading ... trying to find some cool bands I've run across I Rock Cleveland ... and how can you not love a guy who has a podcast called "Michael Stanley Made Me Do It" ... click here for Details.

Others I'm reading:
... always good reviews, always good tunes, and all sorts of different types of music.

Little Brothers in Columbus is closing. Columbus is becoming a mecca of trendy hipster chain stores, restaurants and malls Fashion Places.

FINALLY got my allergies under control ... changed medications in November, seemed to be going well, then spring finally arrived, the blooming started, the air was pollinated and I was decimated. Took me about a week to realize how bad I was (and spent three days in my apartment without going outside sitting in front of the air conditioner or standing under a cold shower). Only problem with the old medication is I sleep about 5 hours a night. Regardless of what time I go to bed, I'm up 5 hours after I fall asleep.

Had a really bad food experience with chicken fried rice that has me back on 'safe' foods ... I had a long night of misery, pain and nausea ... ugh. It's been more than three years since I had the surgery, I still have issues with some things.

And finally, I scheduled all my elective courses to work with my required classes to finish my degree by the end of 2008! It was pretty cool ... I was able to add a bunch of interesting classes:
  • Com/301 - Proposal Writing
  • Hum/150 - Introduction to Film Studies
  • Eng/492 - American Literature Since 1860
  • Sci/151 - Astronomy
  • His/145 - The American Experience
  • His/301 - US Constitution

2007-05-15

I soooo have a new band I like

It's no big secret I'm a huge fan of bands most have not, and will not, ever experience. And every so often I cross paths with others and we share suggestions on the best band you've not heard of. Most of the time, my band kicks the ass of their band.

Most.

My new friend Dea - a couple of times - told me to check out this band called Minus Ted. And, a couple of times, I said, sure, I'll do that, expecting, like most recommendations, for them to be marginal, at best.

Well, sitting at work on Sunday with nothing to while a server rebuilt, I pulled up their website ... and saw they had some MP3's to download ... so I did.

And ...

... in the words of the wonderfully talented and funny Mark Nye:

FUCK YEAH.

Wow.

I have three solid rules about what constitutes the music I love:

1. I need to have good lyrics.

"And when I arrived I was alone
And looking up I heard the car door shut
And I saw the blackest sky
And before I went inside I thought
There is nothing so sweet as the opening of two hearts
In the place where fear and freedom meet."
~ River of My Day
(click to download the song)


Well, that's a solid check in the YES column.

2. I need to have a distinct sound.

There are nine other songs on their website to download ... you can decide, but since I bought both albums on iTunes, that's two solid checks in my YES column, and $20 in their pocket.

3. The simpler the better.

Check. In a big way. Wow. Great great stuff. Listen for free at their website. Then buy that shit.

Because they're three for three.

And Dea's one for one.

(For the record, I just found out that Minus Ted is lead by Skipp Sudduth ("Sully" from "Third Watch", actor/musician Brian O'Neill on vocals and guitars, Tom McGrath (percussions), Kohl Sudduth (bass) and Terry Pender (mandolin, electric leads.)

Yeah, they're in my top 20 and moving up.