Hahah. Funny joke! 10/28/2005 01:16:00 PM
What does your daddy do for a living?

Little Kevin was in his 5th grade class when the
teacher asked the children what their fathers did
for a living. All the typical answers came up:
fireman, policeman, salesman, etc. Kevin was
being uncharacteristically quiet and so the
teacher asked him about his father.

"My father's an exotic dancer in a gay bar and
takes off all his clothes in front of other men.
Sometimes, if the offers really good, he'll go
out to the alley with some guy and make love with
him for money."

The teacher, obviously shaken by this statement,
hurriedly set the other children to work on some
coloring, and took little Kevin aside to ask him,
"Is that really true about your father?"

No," said Kevin, "He plays for the Cubs, but I
was too embarrassed to say that in front of the
other kids."

(Thanks, Nash)
Permanent link | 2 comments





 Visions of Moots danced in his head 10/28/2005 08:39:00 AM (See what I'm talking about)

OK, I'm doing my best to keep Dana from getting too excited about the Steamboat position (as it turns out, we're getting picked up on the Thursday evening we arrive, having dinner at the homes of one of the doctors on Friday, and being taken hiking and then out for dinner on Saturday, and meeting with a real estate agent at one point as well), but I'm of course VERY excited.

I mean, we couldn't have HOPED for a better opportunity - it's exactly the kind of place we were looking for. It's kind of scary, actually.

So I've been doing a good amount of looking around, learning about the area (housing, etc), and arranged for a factory tour of Moots - an ultra-cool, ultra-high-end custom Titanium bike maker. so last night I was looking around at their offerings (looks like their cheapest FRAME costs as much as my new bike), and I kept coming across the image you see above.

And I woke up this morning having a dream about that descent. Look at it! How could you not dream about it!?!

Most of the reason I haven't been riding much here (in Houston) is because it's so DIFFICULT - riding on city streets is hardly what I call ideal road cycling, and driving somewhere to go on a ride is pretty silly. I can't wait for the day when I can hop on the bike and be out on roads like that in a matter of minutes....

Anyway, it's my job to temper our enthusiasm for Steamboat (because what if it's not all we have built it up to be), but every once in a while I'm allowed outbursts like this. It's like an enthusiasm release-valve.

There. Much better. Now back to work.

Also, in other news, Dana and I will both be back in Chicago next week (Oct 31st). I'll be staying through Friday (on Tuesday I become an IBM employee), Dana only stays until about 5pm Wednesday. Then I get home Friday and less than a week later we leave for Steamboat. My only regret is that we can't go during snow season (the Mountain opens, I think, the day after Thanksgiving).

Another Steamboat event we're likely to miss this year - the US Olympic Freestyle Ski Team finals in January, followed by the send-off for all the local Olympians. For a town of somewhere around 10,000 permanent residents, they've got more than their fair share of Olympians (but I'm too bored to look up the actual stats).

OK, really. Back to work now.
Permanent link | 3 comments





 good Chicago humor. 10/27/2005 10:24:00 AM (See what I'm talking about)
Oh, Chicago humor... That sure didn't take long!
Permanent link | 0 comments





 Sox cov'g on BleedCubbieBlue.com 10/27/2005 10:10:00 AM (See what I'm talking about)
Pretty crazy stuff, this (from a few days ago. I went to BCB today to check on the bleachers construction at Wrigley).

...if John Rooney, the about-to-depart radio voice of the White Sox, gets a chance to call the Sox winning the World Series in the upcoming days, he will become the first radio announcer ever to do so.

There. That tells you how long it's been. The last White Sox World Championship was before radio.
Permanent link | 1 comments





 Lobstergram! 10/26/2005 08:33:00 AM (See what I'm talking about)
Mmmm. Some direct-from-Maine dinner last night.

Squeamish (or Vegans) need not apply. For before and after pics, follow the above link.

This (these?) was (were?) a wedding gift from Mike and Tara McKernan, who live in Somewheresville, ME. Their fisherman friend (lobsterman?) plucked these from the Atlantic 24 hours before they arrived (alive) on our doorstep. Who knew lobsters could walk so fast?! They were without a doubt our tastiest wedding gift to date. Yum yum yum!

I guess we owe them a week in Steamboat at some point now, huh? (or wherever we end up next year, that is). Also, in honor of their being Maine lobsters, we got some Sam Adams to accomany them. (I didn't know of any ME-specific beer, so I just went for the Northeast in general.
Permanent link | 4 comments





 Google Overlords 10/26/2005 07:53:00 AM
File under: geek. Uninterested? Move along!

Lots of talk (and pics!) about/of the new google service being announced today. Sounds basically like they're going to provide a centralized data store (don't listen to the fools and think Craigslist or eBay replacement - think of that plus plus).

Basically, seems like they're going to provide an easy way to categorize (and therefore, easy for everyone else to search) basically ANYTHING. So if you want a record of all your DVDs, you plug them into base.google.com and shazam! they're there for your friends to look through. Or for you to create a "library" on a custom web page. I imagine they'll provide a basic tool that's very customizable, allowing the hordes to do with as they like. In fact, they probably have no idea how everyone will use this - much like people have customized Google Maps for their own purposes.

One thing that people haven't compared the service to that surprises me: del.icio.us. Seems a given.

Thoughts?
Permanent link | 1 comments





 Chicago Tribune's 21 things you should know about Houston 10/25/2005 09:53:00 AM (See what I'm talking about)
Chicago Tribune | 21 things you should know about Houston

1. Houston is the only major American city that doesn't have land-use zoning laws. That means anything can be built anywhere, taxidermy shops next to Italian restaurants next to hospitals next to gun shops next to schools. "Every time someone says San Jose is spread out and haphazardly planned," a Mercury-News columnist wrote last year, "I tell them to visit Houston. … It's like driving through a city designed by the stoner teens in `That '70s Show.'. "

2. Houston is known as the world capital of space exploration, the world capital of air -conditioning, the world capital of the international energy industry, the world capital of petroleum exploration and the world capital of capital punishment. What it isn't the capital of is Texas; that's Austin.

3. A 2001 survey found that Houstonians ate out more than residents of the other 39 major cities surveyed. Houston reportedly also has more than 11,000 restaurants. (See next item.)

4. Since Men's Fitness Magazine started listing the nation's "Fattest Cities" in 1999, Houston has topped the list each year except 1999 (Philadelphia) and 2004 (Detroit). This year, with Houston on top again, Chicago finished fifth.

5. The song "Going Back to Houston" (with the memorable lyrics: Well it's lonesome in this old town/ Everybody is putting me down/ I'm a face without a name/ Just walking in the rain) was made famous by Dean Martin, who grew up in Steubenville, Ohio.

6. The city is named for Sam Houston, the first president of the Republic of Texas. He was nicknamed "the Raven" by the Cherokee tribe with whom he lived for three years and went on to become governor of Tennessee, president of Texas (twice), member of the Texas House of Representatives, U.S. Ssenator from the state of Texas and governor of Texas.

7. According to the city's, Web site, Houston has "a Theater District second only to New York City in terms of a concentration of seats (more than 12,000) in a single (17-block) geographic area." No mention of the quality of its theater, but it's comforting to know that there sure are lots of places to sit.

8. About the city, Hunter Thompson wrote in 2004: "Houston is a cruel, crazy town on a filthy river in East Texas with no zoning laws and a culture of sex, money and violence. It's a shabby, sprawling metropolis ruled by brazen women, crooked cops and super-rich pansexual cowboys who live by the code of the West -- which can mean just about anything you need it to mean, in a pinch."

9. The original home of the Houston Colt .45s was Colt Stadium, a much-maligned, open-air park and haven for mosquitoes. The team, rechristened the Astros, moved to the Astrodome in 1965. Colt Stadium stood for a year, used mostly for storage; Astros owner Judge Roy Hofheinz painted the stadium gray so that it could not be seen in aerial photos of the Astrodome. It was dismantled and sold to the Mexican league Torrean Cotton Pickers for $100,000. It later was moved to Tampico, where it was home to the Mexican league Tampico Stevedores. It was eventually torn down, but some of its seats went to a factory workers' league near Pasteje and the rest to a public playground in Tampico.

10. The home of the Astros is Minute Maid Park, the former Enron Field. Though known now for fresh and frozen Orange Juice, the foundations of Minute Maid, a division of Coca-Cola, were in powdered juice. In the mid-1940s, a dehydration process was developed for prolonging the life of such substances as blood plasma. The realization that dehydration could also be applied to orange juice came just in time for an order of 500,000 pounds of the stuff from the U.S. Army.

11. Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale's Gallery Furniture reportedly sells more furniture per square foot than any store in the world.

12. Houston's two major airports are Bush Intercontinental and William P. Hobby. Hobby was lieutenant governor of Texas from 1973 to 1991 and was president of the Houston Post newspaper. George H.W. Bush was president of the United States from 1989 to 1993.

13. A partial list of famous people born and raised in Houston includes: football player Lance Alworth; heart surgeon Denton Cooley; golfer Jimmy Demaret; novelist Allen Drury; auto racer A.J. Foyt; educator and politician Barbara C. Jordan; singer Barbara Mandrell; brothers Dennis and Randy Quaid; poker player Kenny Rogers; dancer Patrick Swayze; actress singer Hilary Duff; singer Beyonce Knowles; actress Phylicia Rashad; and perhaps the most eccentric rich person ever, Howard Robard Hughes, who is buried there in a huge mausoleum.

14. Houston's climate is humid subtropical. Anyone who has ever been there in summer knows that translates into hot. A Houston summer makes a Chicago summer feel like Alaska. It's not the heat; it's not the humidity; it's both.

15. The Astros' Class A team, the Tri-City Valley Cats, has a promotion each night, including Teenie Weenie Wednesdays. No, it's little hot dogs.

16. Houston's Livestock Show and Rodeo is the largest rodeo in the world (1.8 million visitors).

17. U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, of Houston, reportedly once requested that a corridor in her Washington office building be closed off for eight hours so that she could meet privately with singer Michael Jackson.

18. Houston has the lowest housing cost among 27 major U.S. cities with populations of more than 1.7 million. Of course, the odds that your home might one day be sitting in the shadow of a commercial skyscraper (see: Item No. 1) might have something to do with that. Or not. We're just saying …

19. One -hundred years ago this month Houston commissioners began enforcing a city ordinance that forbids men "to make goo-goo-eyes" at ladies. Take that Ald. Natarus.

20. Houston has an impressive array of attractions, including the National Museum of Funeral History. Current displays include a re-creation of a 1900s casket factory and a diorama illustrating embalming techniques used on Civil War battlefields.

21. Have we mentioned Enron?

Compiled by: Charles Storch, Patrick T. Reardon, Tim Bannon, Charles Leroux, Mike Conklin, Blair Kamin, Michael J. Phillips and Kevin Williams.

Sources: City of Houston, Texas Monthly, Tribune archives, Zagat's Guide, wire services.


Copyright © 2005, Chicago Tribune
Permanent link | 3 comments





 Another weekend, another phone interview 10/24/2005 08:18:00 AM

Flickr PhotoOK. So last night I'm doing the dishes and Dana gets a phone call. I assume it's Missy, as they've been playing a wicked game of phone-tag lately, but when I come in later to do something (I think I was going to ask if she needed anything or something like that), I realize that she's taking notes, and assume that she's on the phone with the people from the practice at Reno (to whom she sent an email with times to call her).

After she gets off the phone, I realize that she's been talking to someone from the practice in Portland (OR, not ME). We talk for a while afterwards. They want her to come for an interview, but unlike Steamboat it would be on our dime. For now, I think we're going to sit on any decision until after she takes her boards (a week from today), but maintain contact with them. I think that we should field some more calls/opportunities and if, by the time we're headed to Steamboat, the Portland opportunity is in our top three, we'll shoulder the expense of heading out there to check things out.

At this point, the Steamboat practice is far and away our first choice, but that being said, we've only talked now with two different practices. I feel like we owe it to ourselves to at least give some other practices a chance before making any kind of decision. And also keep in mind that we haven't been offered anything at this point - we're just taking the invitation to Steamboat at face value and assuming that they really want Dana to be a part of the practice there.

Anyway, thought I'd check in with an update. I have lots of work to do so I'll try to check in again later but am not promising anything. Possible topic of next entry: how I decided to root for the Sox in the WS (and no, it's not because they're up 2 games to none - I made this decision in the middle of the first game).
Permanent link | 2 comments





 Okay, that's cool. 10/21/2005 09:25:00 AM

OK, that's pretty cool. I have this little button on my Firefox browser that lets me add a picture to my Flickr account really easily. (basically, if I'm on a page and I want to add an image from that site to my flickr account, I click the button, select the image, and upload it. One, two, three - that easy).

Anyway, I can never remember where to find that button, and I wanted to set up the new browser in the same way. Although Flock integrates pretty well with Flickr (it's how I created this post - just drag the photo from my Flickr account to this blog entry), there doesn't seem to be an easy way built in to the browser for one to upload pictures to one's Flickr account.

Since I couldn't find the source for the button, I decided to try and drag it from my Firefox browser over to the Flock one, and bingo! It worked perfectly. Very neat.

The browser (especially these tools that are integrated) is a little buggy, but it is just a "developer preview", so I guess that makes sense.

OK, I'm going to try to customize my RSS aggregator now...
Permanent link | 5 comments





 Flock browser 10/21/2005 09:16:00 AM
You can easily blog interesting web content with Flock, in just a few clicks.Example: Highlight a passage on a web page that you would like to blog about. 2. Right-click that selection and choose Blog This. 3. The blog editor opens with that selection already inserted. Not only that, the selection is properly formatted as a Blockquote and appropriate citation is included.

Flock

OK, so they need to iron out some things, but so far I'm somewhat impressed with the Flock browser developer preview (a derivative form of Firefox with integrated "social" aspects - favorites stored online at del.icio.us, integration with blogging tools (I'm using the integated blog tool right now), and other neat stuff (RSS aggregator, something I've never used before. Hopefully it's as easily customizable as it should be - right now it's fugly)...

After using it for a while, I'll report back. I wonder how easy it is to add images to blog posts....
Permanent link | 0 comments





 Mr. Sideways 10/20/2005 07:45:00 AM
Two things (or more):

1) I have decided to not relay the fish story. The smell is mostly gone and the memories are better left to waste away in my brain.

2) I'm going to try to fix the poll so it doesn't shift everything to the bottom of the right-hand column in IE, but to be honest, it's not a priority to me. Maybe we ("we" as in web developers) should start intentionally breaking sites in IE (so they only work in other browsers) to get people to switch... Hmm... UPDATE: Done. The poll was too wide, I guess. either way, Hutch - SWITCH ALREADY!

3) Told you there might be more than two. Last night brain class was really interesting - we had some professor of Pediatrics, Neurology, Neuroscience, Genetics and something else talk at class, all about Rett Syndrome with a focus on epigenetics (and in particular, DNA methylation)*, which sounds like it's soon to become the new "it" research area in the genetics world. Very cool. Very informative.

4) I did get two phone calls during class, though. The first one from Dana - who called to tell me that our date at the bar after class might have to be delayed becuase of her second phone interview with Steamboat. Without giving too much away, I'll just tell people not to be surprised if sometime in the very near future Dana and I find ourselves (both) in Steamboat to meet the other doctors in the practice. I'll let D tell the story when she has a spare minute (not any time soon!). Judging by the poll results, none of you will be too disappointed with that news. Maybe my next poll will be to see who chose "Oregon". Leading contenders right now are Scott and McK.

*Don't let the big words fool you. I only have the most basic understanding of this stuff..
Permanent link | 6 comments





 New Poll! 10/19/2005 02:10:00 PM
OK, so I've made a few cosmetic changes - removed the wedding countdown, cleaned up the other pages to which I link (just friends, none of this professional blog stuff), and, quite the addition, placed a poll over to the right.

Currently, my setup says it's "restricted", meaning that you can't vote more than once. I doubt it would be difficult to circumvent, but, well, whatever. Vote away! Let me know what you think..
Permanent link | 6 comments





 Best places to live 10/19/2005 10:49:00 AM (See what I'm talking about)
A handy cross-reference for our current job search.

Though I'm not entirely sure how Naperville made the #3 place to live... shudder

I guess I'll take it all with a grain of salt. Besides, they only compared 1300 cities. Bah!
Permanent link | 4 comments





 Coming soon... 10/19/2005 08:32:00 AM (See what I'm talking about)
Sorry, but you're all just going to have to wait to hear about our smelly fish escapades from last evening (to ruin the story: we ended up ordering pizza. Yeow).

Anyway, I have decided instead to update all on our job search escapades (I say "our" because I'm looking for a new office as well - wherever we end up, I'll be working from home there, so that counts, right?). So we have mentioned the Steamboat job, of course. But I'm not sure we've talked about the Reno job, or the Portland job. Or all the other jobs, for that matter. And I'm not sure D will be comfortable talking about it all because she's under some grand illusion that people will google her to find out more about her (Google? What's that?). So, as I see it, it's my husbandly duty to let everyone know what we're up to (though I think that if she blogs about all the places she's interested in, the ones that are interested in her will only fight harder to get her - and they'll fight with MONEY punches). Not that money is everything, etc, etc.

So as of last night, "we" have submitted her CV to our first three choices (I don't want to say "top", but really how could you beat Steamboat or Reno?). Today I think I'm going to send off to at least five more - we have a list of about fifteen.

And for your googling convenience, I'll list them here:

We missed an opportunity in Greeley, CO (just south of Fort Collins, CO, one of my top choices), but that's what we get for Dana focusing on her boards, I guess.

Either way, we're still getting a good head-start, it seems, and Dana has already spoken to the practice in Steamboat once and verified that as long as she's a "good enough" snowboarder, she can get from the slopes to the hospital in time if she's paged. We're waiting to hear back for her second interview.

Also, I just caught a glimpse at an email (I have a bad habit of checking her email for job responses now - we need to sit down and talk about "boundaries") that she received about the position in Portland.

So far, our six-hour cover letter has garnered some VERY speedy responses.

GO TEAM FITZ!

(As soon as I decide to take the time, I'll consider putting up a poll so y'all can vote on where we should go).
Permanent link | 4 comments





 Oh dear 10/18/2005 08:14:00 PM
This is what came up when I typed in "smelly fish" in google images. Apparently, it's Lord Smelly Fish.

Story tomorrow.
Permanent link | 2 comments





 Whoops! 10/18/2005 08:49:00 AM
How was I supposed to know the fishmonger is closed on Mondays? What's that? Call first? Whatever.

So, with no swordfish steaks, there was to be no monday night menu fulfillment. So I skipped ahead to our Tuesday alternate (the Chicken Tettrazinni) and, knowing how long I spent making it, Dana said she loved it (really, it was OK. The recipe was from Cooking Light and despite the various ingredients and monster prep time, it fell well short of being spectacular IMHO).

After dinner, I pulled out the red pen again and put the editor's cap back on to finalize her CV and the world's best cover letter so that we might secure a job in beautiful Steamboat Springs, Colorado. If MOOTS happens to need an IT guy, it's goodbye IBM (though I'm not really counting on that, but it would be nice!). Though the miles with IBM will be a nice perk (but I know I'll get sick of leaving town pretty quickly).

Either way, D has a phone interview with the Steamboat practice this afternoon. Hopefully they're a good match for each other. The practice is looking to hire because they're interested in growing, and with D's new Sports Medicine sub-specialty, she really has a lot to offer (what with constant exposure to injured kids on the sports teams she covers, and being able to offer services they likely don't take care of themselves right now, like fracture care and ortho exams).

Anyway, we're both pretty stoked about the opportunity. Right now there are about 20 different hiring practices on our list, so we're getting applications and contact information out there (even though we weren't going to start this whole process until after D's boards - but she found a couple listings last Friday, including one that looked sweet and is already gone, so we've been motivated to get moving). Besides, I'm totally confident she'll do just fine on her boards.

Oh, and happy belated anniversarry to the P's - they've been married for 83 years as of yesterday (approximately).

Tonight, it'll be seafood one way or the other, provided the fishmonger has some good swordfish for us (or our fresh perishables arrive from Maine). Full report tomorrow. Today for lunch? Why, leftover tetrazzini, of course!
Permanent link | 1 comments





 This week's menu... 10/17/2005 10:08:00 AM
So while D was busy studying yesterday, before I put on my editor's hat, there was some grocery shopping that needed to get did.

We had the "very" urgent list all made up (I can't find a screenshot of our grocery list paper, but when I do it's getting linked), and I decided to make a "menu" of our dinners for the week. So, here goes:

Sunday
Leftover (frozen, homemade) pizza.
Also: make Irish Soda Bread for the week (breakfast, yummy)

Monday
Grilled Swordfish steak w/Balsamic butter sauce (house favorite)
Asparagus (grilled, with balsamic vinegar marinade)
Wild rice

Tuesday
Fresh Maine seafood (wedding gift either arriving this Tuesday or next)
OR Chicken tettrazini (if seafood doesn't arrive)
WITH Twice-baked potatoes

Wednesday
Tacos! (I have class Wednesday nights, so I wanted to keep it simple since we won't be eating together)

Thursday
Chicken Tetrazzini (if we don't have it Tuesday)
OR Every-Fitz-for-him/herself. D has a foosball game on Thursday

Friday
Fried Chicken (homemade, of course!)
Irish Mashed Potatoes (think garlic mashed with some Irish flavor - NO, not whiskey!)

Not only do we have a pretty full menu, but there's enough here for plenty of leftovers AND I somehow got out of the grocery store spending LESS than usual. Remarkable what cooking at home can do...
Permanent link | 4 comments





 FOOSball 10/15/2005 05:26:00 PM
Dana is making me watch football and baseball (I don't like the Astros or the Cards, so I don't really care who wins - as long as the Angels win it all I'll be a happy camper) instead of two original zombie movies on SciFi that I had set to be TiVo'd. WIVES!
Permanent link | 2 comments





 Xbox 360 - now a "must buy" 10/14/2005 12:37:00 PM (See what I'm talking about)
Oh, crap.

Until now, I only had interest in the XBox360 as competition for my next game console, the PS3. But today I read about some of the games they'll be offering (free!) as part of XBox Live - the online component of the XBox360. Two of my all-time favorite arcade games: Gauntlet (OK, everybody loved Gauntlet) and, get this, SmashTV.

I can't tell you how much I loved SmashTV growing up (back when there were still such things as video arcades). I pumped so many quarters into that damn game. Just too cool. I think it was the first time I saw animated blood, too. And the control was awesome (and at the time, I thought, revolutionary) - one joystick to move your dude around, and one joystick to point your gun. Too cool.
Permanent link | 3 comments





 Today's rant 10/13/2005 02:50:00 PM
Today's rant: content thieves.

I am a (somewhat reformed) content thief. Yes, for several years, I downloaded music that I didn't own from the Internet. Horrors.

OK. Disclosure aside, here's where I am today. Confused.

For example: in the good old days (read: pre-digital), we all felt free to make mix tapes (whether with songs taped from the radio, which made for horrible edits, or songs from other tapes/CDs that we owned), and felt free (and well within our rights) to make copies of mixes and hand them off to our friends. Hell, we even made copies of whole albums and passed them around. No harm, no foul.

Things are, as if I even need to tell you, gentle reader, quite different today. The Internet allows us to quite simply share perfect copies of media - music, movies, tv shows - with an incredible number of people. This is hardly news. What I'm wondering about, though, is the legal grey-area.

I have, for going on two years now, been purchasing no less than 90% of my music via iTunes. I think it's no exaggeration to say that since the purchase of my iPod I have spent more money on music than at any other time in my life (though that's up for debate. My discovery of electronic music in the mid/late 90's was an expensive one indeed). I still make mixes, though more often than not they're now called "playlists" and don't exist on any physical media - they're on my PC, and on my iPod. I could burn them to CD if I really felt like it, but I rarely ever listen to CDs anymore. I imagine that in the next five to ten years I never listen to a physical CD again...

Anyway.. Here's the problem: the law. Fair use laws are great and all (when we're allowed to exercize them), but when they were conceived we lived in a very different world (think: Betamax). I'm not advocating, by any means, that these laws be repealed or legislated into submission any more - I think content should be MORE free, and I think that current copyright laws are overly protective (thanks, Disney lobby) and restrictive, but I also feel that artists and other content creators should be duly reimbursed for their efforts.

We're used to recording things from TV and watching them when we want. But at what point does us TiVoing "Lost" and burning it to DVD for later enjoyment encroach on the rights of the broadcasters/production companies' rights to sell the DVDs later? Do they at all? (I'm inclined to say no).

BUT, broadcast television, for example, (deprecated though it may be) is suppored solely by advertising - easily subverted these days with fast-forward and ubiquitous editing tools. Charging us for access to programs (cable/satellite provider model) makes more and more sense every day, but why do I want to pay $50/month for 500 channels when I only ever watch 20-30 shows?

OK, I'm fragmenting the discussion here - back on topic..

I opted not to downgrade my PSP not because I would have been tempted to play ripped games (basically, full versions of games whose security can be easily subverted and downloaded online) and not becuase I'm not interested in playing those games, but because I think that's a bullshit thing to do. (Note: I have not always felt this way). I no longer tell myself that I'm going to download an illegal copy of a game "for evaluation" - a dubious questionably "legal" excuse for stealing software we often used to use - because again, I admit that it's bullshit.

I don't download movies online so I don't have to pay to rent them because again, that's bullshit. I don't rip movies that I've rented (disclosure: I did do this recently) and make copies (recent example: since thrown away) because again, bullshit.

Now, if I OWN a movie on DVD I feel well within my rights to copy it and transmogrify it in any way I please for my own use (viewing on the PSP), but not to distribute it. I'll lend a DVD to a friend but I won't burn a copy for a friend.

More disclosure: this entry - a random stream of likely contradictory thoughts - is a reaction to my belief that I haven't been posting enough. Blog fodder. Imbibe at your own risk.

I also feel like I haven't made any sense. So, yeah. Awesome.

Back to work. My elbow hurts.
Permanent link | 4 comments





 BJ would be so proud... 10/11/2005 12:21:00 PM
BJ, in honor of your stories (that I am too freaking bothered to look up right now), I decided to post the following:

For those that don't know, I'm back in Chicago to work for this short week (thanks, Columbus). I'm posting, though, because in our 20-some story building I believe I have found the one undiscovered/unused/clean toilet. I met Hutch for lunch today (owed him money from MU Homecoming still), and seeing as it's cold[er] here opted for a cup of chili (yum!). Upon arriving back at work, however, I found myself in the situation that is the logical endgame of eating beans and meat with hot sauce (otherwise known as chili) - I needed to use the facilities.

Remembering a quick discovery I made several months ago (actually, the day before the 24-hour challenge, if it matters), I hit up a hidden bathroom on the mezannine level. Before the buliding's security checkpoint, but still restricted access (need to swipe the badge to get in).

It was immaculate. Pristine, glistening porcelain was there to greet me. I don't know how a handful of "professionals" can soil the four toilets in the men's room on our floor of the building, but without fail by 11am daily they are unusable. This discovery shall remain my secret for the remainder of my time here. I can't have it soiled, and I don't want it to turn out like the roof toilet on Scrubs - that would be a total shame..
Permanent link | 4 comments





 Good read 10/07/2005 01:52:00 PM (See what I'm talking about)
BREITBART.COM - Just The News: "one of the few things that Red state and Blue state America agree on is that they don't trust the news media anymore"

If you have some time, read this. Found via MetaFilter.
Permanent link | 0 comments





 Update continued 10/07/2005 10:04:00 AM
OK, sorry about that little interruption. Anyway, with my newly-discovered TiVo-PSP skillz, I'm all set for the BBC's "Peep Show" marathon on Saturday morning at 2am. I'll just back the suckers up and encode for my airplane-viewing pleasure next week. With CSI I've gotten 1-hour shows down to about 155MB, so with my 1GB MemoryStick I should be able to nab all of them (only 6 30-minute episodes, sadly). I still really need to fix the sync problem with my DVD ripping, though. Some day, I'll get that going.

Beyond that, yesterday was my first real time outside the house with the exception of getting mail/the paper or grilling out since Hutch left on Sunday.

It's funny - do you ever get to the grocery store/CD store (OK, I'm dating myself here - I don't even buy CDs anymore - but hear me out) and realized that although you had been thinking of about a dozen things you wanted to pick up, you now can't think of a single one? That's me, blogging, right now. Can't think of a single thing I wanted to talk about.

Being sick has really been a bummer. I missed my brain class on Wednesday night. I really wanted to go, but that was the day I called in sick to work and it just was not going to happen. Dana tried to pull the "it's our three-year anniversary" thing on the fifth, but I told her that since we're married now, that count starts over. Besides, I got her like six presents for her birthday - isn't that enough?! :)

I'm really hungry right now, and really sick of soup (not sure we even have any left). I've been thinking a lot lately that making some mac and cheese and mixing in some chili would be an extremely tasty meal, but that's just too much food for one person and Dana seems completely uninterested... I guess I'll have to find something else.

Also, I made a SWEET pizza the other night. Boboli, new pizza stone (wedding gift - thanks Freddy!), some pasta sauce with mushrooms as sauce, fresh mozzarella (yum!), pepperoni, and a couple dabs of olive oil. Then topped with a sprinkling of shredded cheddar and in the oven at 450 for about 13 minutes. Delish!

Anyway, I have to figure out what to eat TODAY. I'm starving for lunch. Will try to serve up some more bloggy goodness later as I remember things.
Permanent link | 3 comments





 Aaah. What's this? A blog? 10/07/2005 08:57:00 AM
OK, so, yes. I've been slacking on the blog lately. My bad. But I have been really sick (so sick, in fact, that I took a sick day even though I work from home. I just couldn't hack it). Thanks for that, Hutch. That's what I get for letting him taste my beer, I guess. Some friend! :)

Anyway, as in the last post, lots has been going on. I'll do my best not to talk about work (though I did get that job offer from IBM yesterday - booya). Anyway, I have to make this quick because I have a conference call in seven minutes, but decided to blog to burn the time.

Quickly, then:
  • Decided not to downgrade my PSP to run homebrew - I'd just have to update it anyway when I buy SSX which comes out next week, and I'm not up for the possibility of bricking it. Besides, I just figured out how to a/v sync my Tivo recordings on the thing (using a little utility called DirectShow Dump before PSPVideo9), but only with the new video format that is firmware v2.0-only.

  • OK, got distracted (with work stuff, what else) - so the rest of this post will have to come after my conf. call.


I'm such a tease. More later.
Permanent link | 0 comments