Blogger Fiasco Fixed

Mark of Furtive infamy describes Blogger's fix for the multimedia fiasco. Can turn off the CSS hack now. Yay. Grrrr. I agree with Mark...somebody needs a slapping.

Gibson On Burroughs

Gibson speaks of Burroughs, cut-up, mash-up, mix-up, sampling, and more. Preach on, Brother Gibson.

Congress Pays Itself Again

So despite earnings for nearly all Americans staying flat or falling, Congress decides to pay itself a raise again. I can't even work up enough bile for a snarky comment, I'm so disgusted.

Rockstar Games Makes Me Quiver

I'm not afraid to say it: I love Rockstar Games. They have to be my favorite videogame development house. Not only do they release titles I love (the GTA franchise and Manhunt, for example), they are excellent developers who care about their product.

Perfect example, the XBOX port of GTA: San Andreas... Sure, it is pretty much a straight port of the PS2 version, but they FIXED things. Most importantly, they fixed the stupid Zero RC missions to actually be PLAYABLE! On the PS2 version, it took DOZENS of tries to finish ZRC 1. ZRC 2 was COMPLETELY UNPLAYABLE for the majority of gamers out there. Which prevented them from even seeing the much easier ZRC 3 and thus completing the ZRC missions and getting up to $5000 recurring revenue from the ZRC store.

Last night I decided to give the RC missions a try on the XBOX. It took only two attempts each to beat all three. That's INFINTELY better than the PS2 version, and my skills are not that drastically different on the XBOX version. They must've tweaked the controls to make it more reasonable. Now the ZRC missions are like all the other GTA:SA missions, moderately to very challenging but still defeatable.

I love you Rockstar...

Fucking Google/Blogger And Their Fucking Tags

Blogger decided to fuck with the web design sometime in the past week. How? By inserting the following empty HTML tags into my fucking template without telling me, or allowing me to remove them:

<div style="clear:both;"></div>
<div style="clear:both; padding-bottom: 0.25em;"></div>

Which royally fucked my web template, as well as Furtive Explorations, and a fuck-ton of others.

My fix, thanks to a bunch of other blogging geeks?

/* FUCKING GOOGLE. */
.post-body div { clear: none !important; }

Now before I get emails saying "Blogger did it, not Google!" let me clarify.

Fucking Google owns Fucking Blogger. Fucking Google is on a multimedia rampage lately, and these style tags being inserted without the blog-owner's knowledge and consent is part of said multimedia rampage. These tags are part of their multimedia upload support for Blogger. So basically, these tags are being automatically generated to support multimedia content that doesn't exist 99.9% of the time, and are there to make it easier for stupid idiots with cell-phone-cameras to dump photos to their blog. Fuck the cell-phone-camera people, fuck the idiot(s) who thought inserting empty tags with FUCKING PAGE-AFFECTING STYLE TAGS was a Good Thing, and fuck Google for finally pissing me off.

I still love Google, and I still think their attempts at being GOOD within and without their company is a Magnificent Thing. But this sort of sloppy shit pisses me off, and I hope it isn't a sign of what's to come.

Santorum Is A Dick

Rick "The Dick" Santorum is a total asshole. He is a perfect example of what is wrong with Christianity (and specifically Roman Catholocism) today. He has the gall to make statements such as:

When the culture is sick, every element in it becomes infected. While it is no excuse for this scandal, it is no surprise that Boston, a seat of academic, political and cultural liberalism in America, lies at the center of the storm.

That's right, folks. He's blaming systemic RAPING OF CHILDREN BY PRIESTS squarely on liberalism. Every time he opens his mouth he provides further proof that he deserves having an anal-sex by-product named after him.

San Fierro Beginning To Fall

San Fierro is my current stomping grounds. I've decided to push through the missions until I can learn to fly planes and helicopters. Why? Because lack of a pilot license is preventing me from easily accessing the airports, each of which contain unique jumps. And it is easier to continue the missions until after flight school then go back and clear up all side stuff than it is to continually try getting into the airports illicitly. I'm a few missions away from flight school being accessible. Until then all the side missions, oysters, photos, and jumps can wait.

I finished driving school with half gold medals, the other half split between silver and bronze. I can't wait for motorcycle school. I should seriously crush it since I basically use ONLY motorcycles unless the game requires a car for a mission. Soon I'm going to have to try the Zero missions, however, and since those caused the most consternation on the PS2 version, I'm afraid it will ruin the wonderful time I'm having with the XBOX version. We'll see.

Dark Thoughts From The Dark And Bloody Hunting Ground

Some dark thoughts from this morning's webbing...

Mother sets fire to gloating rapist. A Spanish 13 year old is raped at knife-point. The man is convicted and spends time in prison. Somehow, he gets a three-day pass and visit his hometown. He passes the mother of the girl on the street and ask "How's your daughter?" in a typical macho gloating fashion. Mother soon returns with a bottle of gasoline, douses the rapist, and sets him ablaze. She calmly looks at him burning to death, then walks away. My first reaction..."Good for her." Dark thoughts. I despise rapists, but I had no idea I despised them that much. Damn.

The remainder of the dark thoughts center around the Supreme Court of the USA. What a farce. In the last week, they have proven themselves to be gutless, feckless, mealy-mouthed, political gas-bags. Here's what we've learned from the SCOTUS recently... That private property is no longer yours...you only are allowed to hold it until some random commercial interest decides it wants it. That as long as you don't mention god or jesus, it is OK to establish one religious viewpoint over others on government property, simply because otherwise some religious zealots would get offended. That software designers are evil because they "promote" piracy, even though they stopped short of actually saying the authors were criminals. That cable monopolies are A-OK! That journalists should be jailed, but priests, lawyers, and doctors should not. That entirely-unfederal marijuana is a Bad Bad Bad Evil Thing and should be crushed ignoring all state and local rights in the process. That we should all get accustomed to "Ihre Papieren, bitte! Mach schnell!" and respond quickly and quietly.

The one decision that immediately impacts my life in a positive way? They struck down the ability of states to prevent import of non-locally produced wine. As a wine enthusiast who has had trouble getting some of my preferred wines because of my state's insane liquor laws, this impacts me positively. I still don't know if I agree with this decision in full beyond the "at least I can get <impossible-to-get-wine> now" aspect of it all. While I did not hear or see any aspects of this case that were exceedingly negative, it so strongly goes against the grain of recent decisions I have to wonder what I missed.

Web Of The Day #5

On The Internet, You Can Find Anything
The link I am about to provide will scar you. You WILL NOT be the same person you are now if you read this link. Also, it is crude, pornographic, and disgusting...so only view it where such things are permissible (such as church, work, et cetera). To you, my readers, I present: Unicorn Orgy. That's right. Unicorn...ORGY. Let the wrongness begin.

Serenity Might Not Suck
The writer saw a preview screening of Serenity. Despite it apparently not sucking, one of the best movie critique quotes of all time is in this article. Look for what Aint'ItCool says about sci-fi of today. My favorite bit is the sentence about The Matrix. Love it.

Windows XP And The Principle Of Least Privelege
Usually, I would say that windows and principle-of-least-privelege could never be uttered in the same sentence in a positive light. This blog, however, provides interesting insights into making XP safer for those non-geeky users out there. Pretty cool stuff that is definitely worth a read.

Dock Ellis Is More Of A Man Than You
Dock Ellis threw a no-no while tripping his balls off. Wow. Rawk on Dock!

Where do weekends go?

Very busy weekend. Friday and Saturday spent with friends doing silly things. Not enough time to post silly links, wax poetic about San Andreas, or rant.

Oh, and if you're going to go out drinking in 100 degree weather, be sure to drink some water amidst all that alcohol...by the time we hit an all-night cafe afterwards, I drank almost a gallon of fluid and did not feel full, nor did I feel the need to micturate. All of that water was near instantly absorbed by my gasping-for-water body. Combine that with oompa music, and it was one hell of a night. More on that later.

One last bit of wisdom. If you're out drinking in 100 degree weather, and you aren't drinking lots of water along with your booze, and you're in a very strange environment that is likely to engender blog posts, then by all means WRITE YOUR IDEAS DOWN! By the time you get rehydrated, sober up, and get away from the freaky people, you'll have forgotten at least two good blog topics. Seriously. Write them down. *sigh*

Thrown Out Of Los Santos

So last night, after totally CRUSHING the pimping and taxi missions, I decided I had done enough in Los Santos. So I decided to complete the Los Santos missions, which got me thrown out into the Badlands. Now I'm wandering around the Badlands and Red County, after being betrayed by my gang bretheren. Now I'll pimp out all the activities in Red County and the Badlands before heading to San Fierro.

Web Of The Day #4

But We're NOT a Monopoly! Honest!
I an unsurprising move, Microsoft acquires anti-virus maker Sybari, then immediately announces cessation of anti-virus products for Unix/Linux. But they're not a monopoly! Honest!

Indian Gives Middle Finger To Microsoft
An Indian in Bangalore cracks the "uncrackable" Microsoft verification system. No surprise. Nice to see. Good on him for keeping the fascist monopolists on their toes.

BIG SURPRISE! IRAQ NOW A BETTER BREEDING GROUND FOR TERRORISTS!
Well...DUH!

Fred Phelps Is Still An Asshole
Apparently trying to prove to everyone in the world he is an asshole, Fred Phelps continues to be a rampaging dick to all sorts of people. Usually confining his hatred to those darn gays (search for "god hates fags" as I refuse to link to the fucker), he is now extending it to others. "Who," you might ask? Why, our servicemen and servicewomen, that's who! Why? Well, he has his reasons, and per norm it involves those darn gay people. He's such a disgusting psycopath. He even flies an upside-down flag of the USA on his website. More on that in the next link...

Federal Legislators Still Against Free Speech
Yes, yet again they are wasting their time and our money about a consitutional amendment banning flag burning. It again passed the House. If the Senate passes it, it will then need ratification. I cannot believe this shit is still going on. I cannot believe people will fly flags upside-down (note: to be done only as a signal of extreme distress or crisis, not as a casual political statement), they will attach flags to their cars and let them get tattered and dirty, they will leave their flags outside in all weather, they will let their flags touch the ground, they will do everything but wipe their disgusting fat asses with them. But as soon as someone burns one in protest, it is evil. If they wanted to "protect" the flag, they would address all of the afore-mentioned issues before they EVER got around to addressing burning it. NOT THAT I THINK ANY OF THE ABOVE SHOULD BE ILLEGAL, I'm simply commenting on the hypocrisy of the situation. I find it more disgusting and disrespectful to see thousands (millions?) of flags on cars and houses being abused and ignored, when they should be properly cared for. And before some J. Random Asshole decides to email me, let me state for the record, I have great problems with this country...I sometimes think we are heading in the opposite direction of freedom and democracy...I have refused to say the Pledge of Allegiance and its blather of "under God"...and I do not fly a flag regularly. HOWEVER, NEITHER DO I DESECRATE A FLAG WITH MY CASUAL OBLIVIOUS DISPLAY OF THE SYMBOL ON MY CAR OR ON MY HOUSE. When I bought our house, there was a flag on display, in the middle of winter, and it had obviously been neglected. It was weathered and worn, almost tattered at the edges. The first thing I did when I bought the house was to take down that flag, carefully fold it properly, and stow it away for later disposal. I showed it the respect and care it is due as a symbol of freedom and democracy. I DID NOT, and I WILL NOT desecrate our national symbol by casually destroying it on my person or holdings.

Moby Dick Lives!
Thought I would lighten up after the flag rant with a nifty little link about an albino whale. Rawk.

Vehicle Missions Dropping Like Flies

Last night I decided to continue the vehicle-based missions. I figured they only provide good things when you crush them, as well as provide excellent driving skill bonuses for all the time you spend racing around the city.

The firefighter missions rawked! I had a LOT of trouble with these on the PS2 version of the game, but this time I nailed all twelve levels on the first attempt. Either I've gotten a lot better at steering and driving huge vehicles, or this is the first example of cleaner mechanics in the XBOX port. Either way, I'm now fire-proof, which should prove most helpful since I'm carrying a mess-load of molotov cocktails everywhere I go. I particularly loved the bits where I had to extinguish people after I put out their car. Nothing better than knocking people thirty feet with a huge stream of water. Rawk.

Slightly harder than the firefighter missions were the ambulance missions. I failed twice (once for time, once for killing a patient) before I crushed it. The rules of surviving the ambulance missions are: USE THE SIREN, drive fast but careful, avoid cops at all costs (you don't have time to shed stars), avoid damaging the ambulance as it is a LONG series of missions, try to pull as close to the patients as possible without killing them (especially the SLOW old ladies), as soon as the patient has a foot in the vehicle start driving to your next destination (the extra few seconds really add up over time). Also, use the map to plan the most direct route. The ambulance mission REALLY forces you to learn the city since they are so skimpy with the time they give you.

So now I have 150% health and armor and I'm fire-proof. Next comes the pimping and taxi missions, so that hookers will pay me for sex and all taxis will have nitrous. Then...we'll just have to look at the 100% checklist and pick something.

Cat Crazy Photographer Woman

A hyper-kinetic friend of mine has just started her first website. As with most things in life, she's SUPER-EXCITED about it, so I thought I would pass it along to my miniscule readership.

Her net moniker served as the muse for the site: Nicograph.com. She's a sweet young woman, if a bit hectic, and the website does show off her skill in the photographic medium. Check it out...she's worth a few minutes of your time.

I would just like to point out that despite the "PD" section, she is not insane. There. I've said it. She's hectic, but not insane.

Vigilante Rampage

So after completing all but two of the unique jumps in Los Santos, completing all spray tags, buying all available properties, controlling all territories...I decided to turn my attention to things that would assist with later missions.

I picked the vigilante missions for three reasons: it gives 150% armor if you get level 12, I happened to have a police motorcycle stashed in one of my garages, and I was bored. Hooo boy, what a time!

It took A LOT of effort to complete all twelve levels. I had to reload/restart the vigilant multiple times to complete level 12. By the end of them, I was flowing with adrenaline. I was MAD twitchy...could barely sit still afterwards. Talk about intense. I got up to four stars at one point, and had SWAT all over me as I completed the last levels. Talk about brutal. Yikes.

All I can say is, know where the bribes are located, and know where your nearest pay and spray is. The pay and spray across from the pizza parlor near Ganton is usually the best, as there is usually a car parked in the nearby parking lot that can be used to drive into the P&S and ditch your wanted level. That saved my butt multiple times.

Vigilante levels highly recommended...very intense.

Web Of The Day #3

Thanks, George
What a jerk. Thanks, George. You done it again.

More Religiously Inspired Murder
Great. Yet another victim to the great evil of religion. Spectacular.

An Exciting Three-Quarters Of A Second

I'm sick, you know. Terribly sick. Why? What's wrong? I get excited about stupid trivial geekish crap. That's why I'm sick.

An example. I'm writing a dice probability module in Perl (for those non-geeks among my readers, that translates to "I waste hours of my spare personal time writing computer code that calculates complex mathematics as they relate to dice."). This module is nearly ready for public release and scrutiny, and has been years in the research, discussion, planning, and implementation. The actual code only has taken a few weeks of off and on coding, but the mathematics behind it is a whole other story.

"Fine, so you have a hobby interest in math," I hear you saying. No, I'm afraid it is far sicker than that. You see, part of the design of this code has been to review other similar code that I've been able to find on the Internet. This involves hours of combing the web for interesting code, reading it, evaluating it, learning from it where possible, and improving my own understanding and code at the same time.

"So? We all waste time on the web. Who cares?" Well, you see, I found a piece of code, written in a mathematician-friendly computer language, that does some arcane seemingly magical things, even if it is obtuse as can be. I've read and reread the code, I've tried to grok its inner math-wonk workings, without much success. But it has served well as companion code, allowing me to verify my software's math against someone else's.

"This is getting boring. And?!" Well, after using this tool for a while as test code for my own, and once my code was nearing first-round completion, I decided to benchmark the two pieces of software. I was curious to see which is faster: the mathematician-written code written in a mathematician-friendly language, or the uber-geek-cum-math-hobbyist-written code written in a generic scripting language? Initial testing proved my code was faster. I was very very VERY excited. So excited I was nearly doing a little dance in my chair...my code was faster, my code was faster!

"*sigh* HOW much faster?!" Ummm. Three-quarters of a second for a five-node, multi-computation dice expression. Ummm, yeah.

"THREE-QUARTERS OF A SECOND?! WHO THE FUCK CARES?! GET A LIFE! YOU ARE SO FUCKING SAD!" *sigh* Yeah, I told you I was sick...

Web Of The Day #2

In China, Cigarettes Are GOOOOOOD
Gee, government/business collusion to dupe the public? Glad we don't have that sort of thing in America...

Wolfowitz Did What?!
Paul Wolfowitz said agricultural subsidies must be reduced as a means of reducing world-wide poverty?! Huh? Did aliens take him and replace him with a duplicate or something?!

Yet Again, They Try To Remove Rights
Yet again, a constitutional amendment banning desecration of the flag is in process. Write your fucker/representative and tell them what you think. Prevent stupidity in government. Vote them out. Make them do REAL WORK.

Home-Made Air-Conditioning

Geek ingenuity at work! Thermodynamics is cool...

Firefly Resurrected!

While I may not care for the Sci-Fi Channel, since they haven't had a really compelling show in years (they cancelled Farscape, Invisible Man, and others) and they continue to churn out meaningless pap (SG1, Atlantis). However, they are picking up Firefly from its early Fox grave.

I'm happy to see the show get a second chance. It was good, and was looking to get better right when it got cancelled. The movie is looking promising, and a new season would definitely kick behind. I'll reserve judgment for now...and give SFC the benefit of doubt.

School-Yard Politics

I've avoided political posts for a little bit here on Fever Head. Mostly because I was so distracted with so many other things going on, that even when some idiocy reared up in the press in the form of state-law signings on church property, or more spin on the war in Iraq, I just couldn't work up enough gumption to post about it because there was so much out there and I didn't have time.

But today I ran across a great story. Not only does it show what is wrong with our current leadership, it also shows how screwed up the entire system is. Why? Because Vice-President Cheney just insulted Howard Dean by referencing his mother. Yes, you read that right. Politics has finally sunk to school-yard mother insults.

Mother insults. Seriously. And these guys got elected?

A Fun Weekend Of Getting Nothing Done

This past weekend, there were a few things I had wanted to do. I didn't do a single one of them. Not that it was a bad weekend. Far from it.

Friday we had a friend of Smacky's out for dinner. She brought some lovely wine. We had bosc pears and gorgonzola cheese before dinner. Conversation was fun, and it was nice to see my wife have a good time with her friend.

Dinner was bibimbap. Bibimbap is a wonderful Korean dish; a mish-mash of rice, seasonal vegetables, sometimes meat, and a lovely spicy sauce, topped off with a fried egg. I love bibimbap, it is one of my favorite Korean foods, but I had never made it before. So I looked up recipes online to make sure the dish didn't have any suprises (it didn't), and then as always I promptly ignored all of those recipes and struck out on my own. It was nearly perfect. The only way it could've been better is if I had used a higher quality steak as that night's steak was a little tough. Probably should've tenderized it. Oh well. It was still delightful.

Saturday was meant to be lazy, but we got up early and spent the entire first half of the day going to yard sales. Our neighborhood was having the annual yard-sale day, and we spent most of our time wandering around our neighborhood looking at the wonderful junk people were selling. For a while, I was a little disappointed...all I had gotten was a fifty-cent pocket-knife. But then we stumbled upon a nice older lady who lived a block away.

She mostly had stuff that didn't interest us at all, but then we happened upon three framed pieces of art that really struck us. It turns out, as she explained, they were rubbings she made from temple walls in Thailand when she was there many years ago. The three rubbings were very well done, with starkly defined edges and crisp images. We dithered over the price a little, but talked her down a few dollars to make them more attractive. We were terribly pleased with the purchase. It made the whole dreary day worthwhile. More gang wars in Los Santos filled out the day.

I had hoped Sunday would be a little less busy. I was wrong. We got up early, went to the grocery, bought some food, prepared the food until early afternoon, then went for a reunion hosted by Smacky's chorus. The reunion was nice, inside a lovely home in Old Louisville, but ultimately as I'm not a chorus geek, I again mostly just enjoyed seeing my wife have a nice time with her friends. By the time we got home, there was barely any time to do anything except finish off the gang wars and then go to bed.

Ah well...maybe I can be more productive this coming week.

Los Santos Is Mine!

All of Los Santos has been appropriated. All areas of operation now belong to GSF.

Only three failed missions on record. No deaths. 90+% of weapons and ammunition were gathered during gang war (with includes 6000+ rounds of both SMG and AK-47). Strength and stamina at max. Health at ~70% of max. Every garage packed with vehicles. Now almost back to 20 million in cash thanks to the voluminous amounts of cash gathered during the gang wars. All mission strands finished except for Sweet's mission that gets raided by the LSPD.

I think I'll finish spraying tags, dating the hood rat, doing firefighter/vigilante/pizza missions, and finding and completing unique jumps before I move forward in the storyline. Must try for 100%...

Takeover of Los Santos proceeding as planned.

The second night of GTA:SA went as planned.

All in-city Los Santos properties purchased. All first-round Sweet/Ryder/Big Smoke missions completed. All but one OG Loc mission completed. Still 19+ million dollars on hand after purchases. Pimped-out low-riders stashed in a few garages. One minute, twenty-five seconds on the first Cesar Vialpando low-rider race (10x nitrous makes a big difference). Still only one failed mission attempt on record (and only two or three failed missions where I reloaded because I died and lost my machine pistol). Stamina and strength at max. Health over half of max.

The game is still enjoyable. There are a few controls I'm not terribly crazy about (drive-bys are more difficult, due to the location of the buttons involved), but overall I'm adjusting to the differences well.

Loc'd-out Gamer Goin' Crazy

The first night of xbox bachelordom was a Good Time. The first night saw: strength raised to maximum, stamina raised to 50% of max, about ten missions completed (with only one failed attempt), about a hundred or more rival gang members killed, a couple of drug dealers killed, a handful of tags sprayed, three or four properties purchased, and $20 million dollars in cash. Not bad for a few hours work.

I'm not racing through the missions this time. I'm taking the time to pimp out my character, increasing physical attributes, increasing weapon and driving/riding skills, building a huge wad of cash, buying properties ahead of venturing into the areas surrounding them, evading capture by the 5-0, saving vehicles in various garages, et cetera. I intend to go for 100% completion this time, but I think I'll likely top out in the 80s or 90s.

All that aside, I was somewhat disappointed in this release. When Vice City came out for XBOX, it was prettier, cleaner, with repaired game mechanics, and more. This seems like a straight port from PS2 to XBOX, with little refinement in the way of graphics or mechanics. But I haven't gotten to the most difficult parts of the game (can we say "zero's biplane mission?"), so maybe I'll see refinement there.

Regardless, I'm enjoying the game, even if it doesn't seem as tweaked as it could be.

Another Bad Best Buy Experience

So on my lunch hour, Nemo and I left the Land That Appliances Forgot and went to the nearest Best Buy to make today's purchases.

In an effort to make a single stop, I figured I'd buy all items (Coldplay's X&Y, NIN's [WITH_TEETH], and GTA:SA for XBOX) from Best Buy, even if their price may not be the best. I grab the NIN on the way to the video game area. Walking through the XBOX section it becomes readily apparent they don't have the game out. But they have the game guide book, revised for PC and XBOX. Fine. I find a lackey. I foolishly ask, "Do you have GTA: San Andreas for XBOX?"

"No. It is not out until tomorrow," said The Lackey.

Even more foolishly I responded, "No, today's the release date. You have the book. Where's the game?"

"Yes we have the book. But the release date is tomorrow. Look on the internet, the release date is the 8th," sayeth The Lackey.

Trying not to smack The Lackey, I said, "Actually, no. The release date everywhere else is today. I'll just buy it elsewhere." At which point I walked away, grabbed the Coldplay album on the way to the register, and gave them a couple bucks for the two CDs.

Then Nemo and I walked two doors down in the strip mall, went into Game Stop, and I bought GTA:SA for XBOX, and the book, for cheaper than I would have had I gotten them at Best Buy...two doors away.

As we were walking to the car, I briefly entertained the idea of walking back into Best Buy, finding The Lackey, and saying, "Look! I'm a time traveler! I went 24 hours into the future and purchased this game! OOOOOH! I'm a TIIIIIIME TRAVELERRRRRRRR!" But then I thought that may be dickish of me, so I decided against it. Grrr. Lackeys. Grrr. Best Buy is beginning to piss me off.

Coldplay is disgustingly good.

Part of me wants to hate Coldplay. Part of me wants to reject them due to their major super-stardom. Part of me wants to say that nothing that big could be good.

But they are simply too good to dismiss. I just picked up X&Y, and all I can say right now after a first listen is this: it is very very very good...you should go out and buy it.

Punk rock they ain't. Edgy? No. Avante-garde? Heck no. They appeal to just about anybody who listens to them. Incredibly accessible. And while some bands are like that (think "generally anything top-40"), Coldplay does this while also being quite good. Quite, quite good. I mean, damn, they're good.

Go out and buy X&Y.

Widow-Making Day

Today is the day. New Coldplay album and San Andreas on XBOX. I'll be buying both on my lunch hour. Starting tonight, my wife will be a San Andreas widow for a few days.

Religion Is Creepy

I'm all for people worshiping as they please. I'm all for live and let live. I choose not to believe, and to expect my choice to be respected I should respect the choices of others. And I do. But religion is still creepy to me, and it makes my skin crawl.

This past weekend, a minister of a local church was killed while riding his bike on Bardstown Road in the Highlands of Louisville. I heard it on the radio while driving in to work on Monday, thought "that sucks," and went on with my day. Then Smacky calls me at work in a panic, apparently the minister was from the local hippy church she's been attending. Now, when I say "hippy" I mean "based on Christianity, but inclusive of all viewpoints, lifestyles, and people." Basically, it appears to be the locus of alternative spirituality in Louisville for those marginalized by other religions: homosexuals, free-thinkers, spiritualists, deists, et cetera.

To support my wife, I went with her to the memorial service that was held last night. It was a nice (and LONG) service, and the church was packed to the gills. Not only did I not burst into flames, I made it through the whole service without feeling the need to get up and walk out (since that would upset Smacky and all). However, it was nice to see the man was so well liked, and how the congregation had accepted him so fully in the handful of months he had been with them.

While their inclusive modern form of worship was certainly a little more tolerable than most services I've attended, it still gave me the creeps. Ultimately, it was still projection of order and understanding onto the chaotic and the unknowable, which is the very thing I cannot accept and what drove me away from religion so many years ago. Lots of people expressed shock and lack of understanding, at which point they usually followed that up with declarations of order and understanding...and my skin would begin to crawl.

The one person who spoke who creeped me out the least was a minister friend of the deceased, whose closing statement expressed doubt about the whole affair and how he could not see the good that would come of it. Somehow, I feel it was one of the most real statements made that night, excluding professions of love and admiration as it was clear these people truly cared for the deceased.

When my loved ones have died, I have been destroyed with grief. But the grief is about the loss of them from my life and the lives of those we loved in common. I do not grieve for their "soul" or that they should be alive or question the good or bad of it all. Life is a fragile, delicate, and amazing thing. Enjoy it while it happens, and when it ends, feel lucky you had a great run. Ultimately, I wish the deceased well in whatever, if any, existence is ahead of them, and then I move on to dealing with the gaping hole left in my life by their absence. I do not try to create order surrounding the happenstances of the situation. I do not expect a higher power to show itself and its workings to me. I accept the loss, deal with my grief, and go on with life.

To me, religion is -- particularly in times of grief -- a dangerous crutch, an ointment for a wound better left to heal on its own, a support structure that all too easily becomes an imposed hierarchy of how to think in everyday life. Yuck. Creepy stuff.

Mark Lanegan Highly Recommended

Mark Lanegan's album Bubblegum has been the only thing of late that has been able to replace QOTSA in my players. Not only is Lanegan (former singer from Screaming Trees) top notch, but he's also working with a whole host of people from various bands I love (Masters of Reality, QOTSA, PJ Harvey among others). This guy is good. The album is masterfully crafted. Buy it, your ears will thank you.

My current favorite of the album is Methamphetamine Blues. One minute and forty-seven seconds in and my skin goes tingly for some reason (could be the female backing vocals...I've said before I'm a pervert)...but an excellent song from start to finish.

Random Quotations #2

GOD is applied POWER
  which is applied GOVERNMENT
    which is applied POLITICS
      which is applied ADVERTISING
        which is applied SOCIOLOGY
          which is applied PSYCHOLOGY
            which is applied BIOLOGY
              which is applied CHEMISTRY
                which is applied PHYSICS
                  which is applied MATH
                    which is applied PHILOSOPHY
                      which is applied BULLSHIT

--From the offensive fortune file...

Playing Old-Man Games

Now that I'm into my third decade, I think it is time to start trying on old-man games for size. Bocce, anyone? Maybe kubb? I'm not sure which to try first.

Part of me wants to get out a big jug of table wine, setup a bocce court in the yard, and start wasting hours talking politics and how the children of today are wastrels all the while playing Bocce. There is something attractive about that. But part of me just wants a case of beer and lawn jarts, too, so maybe I shouldn't listen to my inner old-man just yet. (No, you can NOT wear the trenchcoat to the park!)

I think I'm going to get a Bocce or Kubb set and try it out. Maybe start a regular game on the weekends or something.

Random Quotations #1

"Not only is my stomach not this big. I don't have this much ambition!"
--Chili, at lunch, 2005.06.02

Too. Cute. Make. It. Stop.

The following link is so cute it is unsafe. You have been warned!

Web Of The Day #1

In an effort to standardize my daily web finds, here's the first of the "Web Of The Day" posts...

American Family Association boycotting Ford Motor Co. over gay issues.
These idiots boycotted Disney for nearly a decade. What happened? The AFA faithful didn't partake of anything Disney, and Disney still made vast sums of money and is still in business (despite Eisner's best attempts to the contrary). Now they want to boycott Ford because of the manufacturer's enlightened policies towards gays. Nevermind that nearly the entire automotive industry offers similar policies; Ford got some press about it, therefore they are EVIL. Stupid bigoted religious zealots.

Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries
Or, "Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries According To The Right-Wing Ideologues At Human Events Online And Their Ilk." Sure, a couple of them did a great bit of harm, but they left off the biggies: The Bible, The Quran/Koran, and all derivations thereof (NIB, NKJB, NASB, NRSB, Nafi, Ibn Kathir, Ibn Amir, the writings of Baha'u'llah, et cetera). All of these were and are far more dangerous than ANY on this list. It always is the zealots...always.

In terrorism fight, government finds a surprising ally: FedEx
Time to re-evaluate whether I want to business with FedEx. Welcome to the future, everyone. FedEx is at the front-lines, and they are getting seriously more and more dangerous and scary.

I Do Not Think That Song Means What You Think It Does, Ad Man
Some excellent examples of the strange bed-fellows created from snappy-tunes/advertisement-branding attempts. My personal favorite is "Lust For Life" used by the cruise lines...a song about heroin addiction selling cruises...wow. The other examples are interesting as well. One side note: the reference to Microsoft using the Confutatis from Mozart's Requiem is most likely an urban legend. I can find zero source material to confirm this, and it has been referenced in all kinds of jokes forums with varying elements (IE4, Outlook Express, Windows, et cetera). While hilarious, I doubt the Microsoft advertising juggernaut would've missed the whole "when the cursed are confounded and doomed to flames of woe" aspect of using Mozart's Requiem. My bullshit alarms go off big time with this, as I can find no evidence, and that happens to be one of the most famous sections of one of the most famous requiems ever written.