BigGuyWhoKills

My 2011 CD

2011-12-25T03:07:00.001-07:00

This last semester, I took a music appreciation class. The class covered "western art music", which is colloquially called "classical". The music snob in me feels the need to point out that "classical" is only acceptable as a genre if you refer to western art music created from about 1750 to about 1820. Our class covered Baroque, Classical, Romantic, 20th Century, and contemporary music. So I've decided to include a few tracks from these genre's on my 2011 CD. I was half tempted to include Cage's 4'33", but redbook doesn't compress files, so it would have taken just as much space as any other song four and a half minutes long. Some pieces that I really wanted to include will not be on here, because there is not room to do them justice (like Beethoven's 9th). So the first 1/4 of the CD is like that, and the latter 3/4 is more like my previous CDs.

01 - Damin Djawadi - Game Of Thrones Main Title
I love this song, and Damin is a great composer. If you're a fan of the TV show, this should raise your heartrate a few bpm (don't watch the HBO series until you have read the book covered by each season you watch).

02 - Miroslav Skoryk - Melody (performed by Kiev Soloists: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3jSVouBRZM)
Miroslav is a contemporary composer that I first learned about from a concert I went to early in the semester. I've listened to about a dozen different performances of this piece, and this is by far my favorite. Kiev Soloists is the recording name of the Kiev National Chamber Ensemble. The violin soloist is Myroslava Kotorovych, and I've heard her play this in one other recording that is slightly less favorable to this one. This recording is taken directly from the YouTube clip linked to above (I could not find a way to purchase this song legally).

03 - Schubert - Erlking (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OHJ0QwmzFs)
If there's a chance that you ever hear this lied in the future, I may as well spoil all other version for you. Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau will forever own this song. Ranked as the second greatest voice in recorded history, nobody will ever do a better job singing this. The piano in this version is played by the amazing Gerald Moore. I've heard two version of Erlking by Dietrich and Gerald, and this is the slightly better of the two. There are other recordings of Dietrich singing with different pianists, but even the best of those pales in comparison to this recording.

04 - John Adams - Short Ride In A Fast Machine
In class I called this a "woodblock concerto" (I am hilarious). This is another contemporary composer, which should be evident by the instrumentation and "American" feel. It sounds very Copeland-esque to me. Rumor has it that Adams went for a ride in a friend's car across San Francisco. The event frightened and inspired him, and that is what prompted him to write this song.

05 - The Beatles - Something
One of their best, and probably my favorite George Harrison song. George wrote the song for his wife of the time, Pattie Boyd (who later married Eric Clapton and had "Wonderful Tonight" written for her). It is The Beatles second most covered song (after "Yesterday"). George's favorite cover was done by James Brown, which he kept on his personal jukebox. Sadly, this is from the more recent remaster and not a monaural mastering.

06 - The Radio Dept - Sleeping In
Finally, a song that celebrates my favorite thing! Just a cool song, with great timbre. I fell in love with this entire album, but have not gotten into their other two albums. The album has a song titled "The Worst Taste In Music", how could I NOT love them?!
07 - The Radio Dept - I Wanted You To Feel The Same
Lovely song, if you ignore the lyrics. This is on my "sad" playlist because its meaning fits that description perfectly.

08 - Blonde Redhead - Oslo
I'm a sucker for a female vocalist with a whispery voice (Lisa Hannigan, Hope Sandoval, Maria Taylor, Orenda Fink, Natasha Khan, etc), so Kazu catches my attention pretty easily. This song, when played on a good system will shake your house.
09 - Blonde Redhead - Black Guitar
This was included partly so you get to hear Amedeo sing something from the group. They have a number of songs that he sings solo or alongside Kazu.
10 - Blonde Redhead - Love Or Prison (Kastellet Mix)
I like this mix better than the original (both from the same album). The original was a bit more "electronic", which I have long associated with insincerity (possible due to synthesizers in the 80's replacing traditional instruments)

11 - Bat For Lashes - What's A Girl To Do (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYnm9XHqnog)
Another song on my sad list. We listened to this in my music class, to show several aspects of composition. A very cool video too.

12 - Lisa Hannigan - Black Eyed Dog (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvaqqk3pHLw&noredirect=1)
This is a cover of a Nick Drake song, from a concert of various artists paying tribute to one of the UK's most underappreciated songwriters. Watch the video (watch the entire concert if possible), and at the start of this song you will see an audience politely clapping and barely willing to sit through this Irish lass. By the end the audience responds with thunderous applauds. Lisa nods politely and walks briskly off-stage, more of a testament to her introverted and shy nature than anything else. She isn't the type to stand on stage and soak up adoration. Her coda in this recording gives me goosebumps every time.
13 - Lisa Hannigan - Home
If you aren't already in love with her, this song should resolve that. Her voice during the bridge (1:16, 1:30, 2:45, 3:00, 3:58) is my new standard for perfection in vibrato. For background detail, vibrato is, in my opinion, the most abused vocal technique, and possibly the fastest way for me to dislike or even hate a singer. For me, this was her standout track from this album, easily my favorite.
14 - Lisa Hannigan - Knots (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYdPtcx-4mo&feature=relmfu)
She is the perfect woman. Oh yeah, the music. A fun tune with memorable lyrics carried at a great tempo. Watch the video, I can't get through a viewing without laughing (I hope it only took one take).
15 - Lisa Hannigan - Little Bird (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRdj8MRj9Js)
This song causes me to subconsciously minimize my breathing, in order to minimize the background noise as I listen. That's how beautiful it is, and that is one of my criteria for moving a song to my highest tier of favoritism. Listen to her voice at 2:20.

16 - Azure Ray - Larraine
A pretty song. The lyrics are very sad. So much, that I almost did not include it on this disc.

17 - Adele - Cold Shoulder
From her first album, "Cold Shoulder" has a lot more funk than anything else she has done. Her drummer is clearly having a good time, which is almost guaranteed to draw me in.
18 - Adele - Set Fire To The Rain
My favorite Adele song to date. One more song that I have on my "sad" playlist.

19 - Rush - Entre Nous
One of my favorite Rush songs. The lyrics explain it all, so I'll let you explore it on your own.

20 - Lo-Pro - Texas
Easily my favorite song on this album. I should have had this on last years CD, but forgot. I've been a fan of Lo-Pro since Ryan recommended their first album many years ago. I was greatly pleased that this album kept the same energy and quality as their first.

How to format your audio filenames

2011-12-24T01:01:00.004-07:00

It has come to my attention that some of you may not properly format your audio filenames correctly. I don't want to say who does this, because that would be embarrassing to Marianne. Here is the correct format:
Artist - Album - Track # - Track Title
Where "Artist is the name of the artist, "Album" is the album name, "Track #" is the track number, and "Track Title" is the title of the track. I probably did not need to explain that, but it's typed now, so deal with it.

And here is the reason that format is important. If a file is ever copied or moved to a folder that contains other files, this format keeps everything organized (assuming you sort folders by filename, which you should also do). I see a lot of filenames formatted as
track_# track_title
(screw you, iTunes), and it's starting to bug me. Recently, someone who may or may not be my younger sister, moved a lot of tracks into one folder on our family's Dropbox music folder. There are 8 files that start with "01", each from a different artist. So if you want to play all the songs by Joan Baez, you have to hunt and control-click all over that folder.

If you have a large music collection, there are software tools that can rename files based on the tags already present in the music. Just do a Google search for "tagger" or "tagging" software, and pick one for your OS. I use "EasyTag" in Linux, and WinAmp in Windows. I don't have a Mac, so I have no recommendations for that OS.

My 2010 CD

2010-12-26T00:25:00.001-07:00

Throughout the year I think of artists that I want on my next CD. I keep a list of those artists on my phone. The method that I use to narrow down tracks is to listen through an album quickly, usually the first 30 seconds of each song, and then I will skip around that song to make sure I'm remembering all of the significant parts. From that, I can usually get an album down to 2-4 tracks that I scrutinize very closely. This year was more difficult. My first pass through some of these albums only eliminated two to four songs. Stupid redbook (CD audio) allows only 80 minutes of audio (I wish DVD-Audio had caught on a decade ago). So I had a lot of work to do this year. Once I have a tracklist that fits on a standard CD, I then sort the songs so they "flow". We can't have Godsmack right after Russian Red for instance. That step only takes a few minutes, after which I listen to the entire mix one last time.

It's really a fun process. I try to include songs that I love and songs that I think you will love. Sometimes I will drop a song that I really like because I don't think the intended audience will like it. Other times I will keep those songs in the hope that you people will grow. You're welcome. Sometimes I omit an artist or album because it was released to close to the end of the year, and my mix doesn't have room for them. The new Azure Ray and Blonde Redhead albums fell into this category this year.

Here is a breakdown of the tracks, with my track #, the artist, original album name, original album track #, and song title:

01 - Blonde Redhead - 23 - 01 - 23
I Found Kazu Makino this year from a list of the hottest female musicians. And isn't that the reason we listen to music? OK, even the manliest parts of my personality has to make sure you know that I don't listen to music because I find the singer attractive. It's all about the voice and overall composition, which this album does perfectly.
02 - Blonde Redhead - 23 - 03 - The Dress
The lyrics for this song drew me to it. It's not often that a song with this tone reveals that the singer is not in love.
03 - Blonde Redhead - 23 - 06 - Silently
Either "The Dress" or this track count as my favorite songs on this album.
04 - Blonde Redhead - 23 - 07 - Publisher
Every track that I cut from this CD was painful, but I wanted to include both Kazu and the brothers singing.
05 - Blonde Redhead - 23 - 08 - Heroine
Blonde Redhead has a new album out that I will include on next years CD. I cannot recommend Blonde Redhead highly enough. If you don't purchase this album, I hate you. HATE!

06 - Russian Red - I Love Your Glasses - 01 - Cigarettes
Thanks KaRyn! I love Lourdes Hernández' voice.
07 - Russian Red - I Love Your Glasses - 07 - Kiss My Elbow
The emotion she conveys here is why it beat out other tracks on the album. That is one thing that a good musician can do, no matter what the genre, to win me over. This is why I enjoy "Azure Ray" as much as "Bury Your Dead".
08 - Russian Red - I Love Your Glasses - 09 - Walls Are Tired
This album is very similar to Mazzy Star (sorry KaRyn), in that it's easy to listen to and perfect to put on as I wind down for bed.

09 - The Raveonettes - In And Out Of Control - 03 - Last Dance
The album us about 80% perfect, with only 1 real "miss". I won't hate you if you don't buy it, but I will think less of you. Loser.
10 - The Raveonettes - In And Out Of Control - 05 - Heart Of Stone
I discovered this band when I stumbled on the awesome video for "Heart Of Stone". It's an animated steampunk story that's fun to watch. Look it up.

11 - Stars - The Five Ghosts - 03 - I Died So I Could Haunt You
Thanks Marianne! I wanted to add about 3 more songs from this album, but added them late, and no longer had room. Plus, I suspected that she or Clayton may have those tracks on their CD.

12 - Stone Sour - Audio Secrecy - 10 - Miracles
Thanks Ryan! Ryan highly requested that I buy this, and I'm glad that I complied. This album was another that took a lot of time to decide what to cut. It too was added late, so no room was left for a proper representation.

13 - Blue October - Foiled - 08 - Overweight
Thanks Lisa! Yeah I'm about 4 years late with this album. At about 3:30 he goes into a verse of gratitude that I love.
14 - Blue October - Foiled - 09 - X-Amount Of Words
This track had a great beat, like a good club track.
15 - Blue October - Foiled - 10 - Drilled A Wire Through My Cheek
You may like or hate this song, I love it. The beat during each verse is methodical and interesting, while the chorus is powerful and loud. The lyrics may be confusing at first, but it's not as nefarious as it may first seem to be.

16 - Godsmack - The Oracle - 05 - What If
I've only had this for a few days, so I'm not yet familiar enough with it to write much. Godsmack made many appearances on my workout mix (something I should post later on), so they kinda had to be on here.

17 - Rush - Caravan - 02 - BU2B
You all know I love Rush. This is one of the singles from the EP for their next album that I am eagerly awaiting.

18 - The Beatles - The Beatles (White Album) - 02 - Dear Prudence
"The sun is out, the sky is blue, it's beautiful, and so are you." Lines like that are one of the reasons The Beatles are the first masters of Rock and Roll.
19 - The Beatles - The Beatles (White Album) - 07 - While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Hands down my favorite Beatles song. Although there are many close behind.

If you've been watching the music scene for the last year or so, you may have seen some of the hype about re-releasing classic records in monaural. The Beatles are a perfect example of the mono mastering being superior to the stereo. The band would put a lot of time into the mono mastering, but would rarely assist with the stereo mastering because they didn't like the sound. And a lot of albums that came out in the 60's are done very poorly. Some examples have 100% stereo separation of individual instruments! But the kids liked hearing different sounds coming from each speaker, so it sold well due to the novelty. It's the equivalent of modern day DRC (dynamic range compression) found on many 90's and later CD's. Because of this, I've included two of my favorite mono tracks. These are ripped from the monaural CD's taken from the original mono master (not down-mixed stereo), ripped with EAC to FLAC, and then from FLAC to redbook (CD audio). Put on a good set of headphones and see if you can notice the difference.

I like this lady

2010-11-11T23:48:00.002-07:00

Another blog for the three of you that sometimes read this:
TheHotLibrarian
She is probably as funny as HyperboleAndAHalf. You are welcome.

Update for Sept 2010

2010-10-16T21:15:00.003-06:00

Dad and I painted the car, and it looks very good now. There's some spots that I'd like to re-shoot, but it is worlds better than it was just a month ago.

Dad is renting shop space and starting his own business, TRH Racing. I'm spending some time there helping him. We build high performance engines for hot rods and race cars.

I am still looking for a job in IT, but it's not going well. I've re-written my resume more times than I can count. I make a slightly modified version for nearly every job application.

Other than that, everything is about the same. I have another character in WoW at max level, bringing the total to 12. Patch 4.0 launched last Tuesday, and it's a lot of work. They changed a lot, which means I have to re-learn how to play all those characters now. There is also a lot of gear changes to do. I haven't even done half of my characters yet. It's been a busy few weeks.

The Colbert Report

2010-08-28T09:36:00.002-06:00

I was looking up media for Lisa Hannigan, and came across this interview and song on the Colbert Report. Her voice was a little bit off, but still did a great job on "I Don't Know".

And in the related links I saw that Rush interviewed and played as well in 2008. This is what I get for not watching TV. It was an excellent interview, but he missed the one question that I would have asked: "Niel, how is your last name pronounced?" Just so you know, I am fully aware of how to pronounce Niel's name (rhymes with "ear"). I just want a more recent example than the obscure interview or concert sound bite.

Something for the 3 of you that read my blog...

2010-07-02T10:48:00.001-06:00

This lady is hilarious. And her sense of humor really aligns with the type of humor that we all like:
http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/

I'm funny when I copy Brian Regan

2010-06-25T06:35:00.002-06:00

In WoW, you can queue up for dungeons with random people. Almost every time, these will be people that you have never met before. So for kicks, when we are done and right before I leave, I type "take luck".

I have no idea if anyone else gets it, because I leave almost immediately after that.

Blizzard is on the ball

2010-06-08T14:26:00.002-06:00

They just launched the "Remote Auction House". For an extra $3 a month, you can manage your WoW auctions from anywhere in the world.

On an unrelated note, companies on the Asian Pacific rim just experienced a 90% productivity drop.

The Office

2010-04-27T03:28:00.002-06:00

I finally watched "The Office Special", which completed the British series that spawned the American version that most of us know so well.

I'm still undecided which version I like better, the UK or the US version. I think that I like Dwight better than Garreth, but just by a small margin.

If you like the US version, you should really check out the British original.

Netflix is awesome.

An Linux article for Windows users

2010-04-03T01:34:00.003-06:00

Seven things that are easier to do in Ubuntu (Linux) than in Windows.

If you haven't tried Linux in the last year, you really should try Ubuntu. It's free, the entire installation and setup is graphical and guided (backup your music and pictures first), and you can do anything in it that you can do in Windows.

I have only come across one thing that I can do in Windows that I cannot do in Linux. And that is binding a push-to-talk button in Ventrilo for use when Ventrilo is not the foreground application. If you don't have that same need, then you can probably use Linux as easily as Windows.

A few things to keep in mind if you do try Linux. Your computer will not slow down after a few months of use. Every Linux application you install will be free. You can run Windows applications in Linux just fine. Windows applications may still charge you, but most Windows applications have a free Linux equivalent.

Permanent Waves

2010-03-30T12:16:00.002-06:00

Work had me seriously depressed today. About 20 times more than normal. I can usually shake it off about 5 steps out of the door, but today was different.

So I resorted to my best and oldest trick, I put Rush on the iPod and everything was better again. Today was the 1980 classic "Permanent Waves". I don't know which song changed my mood, probably because I was too distracted. But it was track 4, Entre Nous, where I took note of how completely my mood had changed.

This is why Rush is, and will probably always be, my favorite band.

Memento

2010-03-26T17:11:00.002-06:00

Just watched Memento for the first time. Wow! So good that I don't mind being a decade behind everyone else. And Joe Pantoliano was made for the role of Teddy. I always hated him in the Matrix.

Odds are, you will lose

2010-03-23T09:36:00.000-06:00

"Gambling is a tax on people who are bad at math" - Anonymous (If you can find who originally said this, post a reply)

I just watched a TV show where the mother was outraged that her daoughter's boyfriend was in a band. It made me think that people who buy lottery tickets lose all credibility when they complain that their daughter's boyfriend's band will never 'make it'.

Our 16th president

2010-03-17T01:55:00.001-06:00

"You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot help the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by encouraging class hatred. You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn. You cannot build character and courage by taking away a man's initiative and independence. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves." - Abraham Lincoln

Colorado says "NI" to the FDA

2010-03-11T06:50:00.002-07:00

"Stem cells are like the carbon-fiber of nature. You can make anything from them." - Adam

That's me being all prophetic. But seriously, a company in Colorado is fixing busted people with stem cells.

I would have gone the Steve Austin way, but their method is cool too.

I hate lamp

2010-03-11T06:49:00.001-07:00

Get me this instead.

I love lamp

2010-03-10T22:17:00.001-07:00

If anyone is looking for a gift for my birthday, get me a cheap desk lamp. My current lamp is ghetto-tarded.

The carbon footprint of pets

2010-02-25T10:15:00.002-07:00

Those of you that know me, know that I don't give a lot of credence to the phrase "carbon footprint". But I do love it when science finds things that might upset tree-huggers. Since many eco-freaks are also pet lovers, I want them to know that their furry loved ones may offset their shiny new hybrid. In reality, I want to tell them this to their face. Because few things are as awesome as telling someone that they are wrong. It's even better when they are self-righteous about the topic.

So if you know someone that weeps for the environment and owns pets, please, introduce them to me before they read this article!

Here is the complete article at the Vancouver Sun. And since I don't know how long they will have the article on their site, here is the complete text for that article:

Polluting pets: the devastating impact of man's best friend
By Isabelle Toussaint, AFPDecember 26, 2009

PARIS – Man's best friend could be one of the environment's worst enemies, according to a new study which says the carbon pawprint of a pet dog is more than double that of a gas-guzzling sports utility vehicle.

But the revelation in the book "Time to Eat the Dog: The Real Guide to Sustainable Living" by New Zealanders Robert and Brenda Vale has angered pet owners who feel they are being singled out as troublemakers.

The Vales, specialists in sustainable living at Victoria University of Wellington, analysed popular brands of pet food and calculated that a medium-sized dog eats around 164 kilos (360 pounds) of meat and 95 kilos of cereal a year.

Combine the land required to generate its food and a "medium" sized dog has an annual footprint of 0.84 hectares (2.07 acres) -- around twice the 0.41 hectares required by a 4x4 driving 10,000 kilometres (6,200 miles) a year, including energy to build the car.

To confirm the results, the New Scientist magazine asked John Barrett at the Stockholm Environment Institute in York, Britain, to calculate eco-pawprints based on his own data. The results were essentially the same.

"Owning a dog really is quite an extravagance, mainly because of the carbon footprint of meat," Barrett said.

Other animals aren't much better for the environment, the Vales say.

Cats have an eco-footprint of about 0.15 hectares, slightly less than driving a Volkswagen Golf for a year, while two hamsters equates to a plasma television and even the humble goldfish burns energy equivalent to two mobile telephones.

But Reha Huttin, president of France's 30 Million Friends animal rights foundation says the human impact of eliminating pets would be equally devastating.

"Pets are anti-depressants, they help us cope with stress, they are good for the elderly," Huttin told AFP.

"Everyone should work out their own environmental impact. I should be allowed to say that I walk instead of using my car and that I don't eat meat, so why shouldn't I be allowed to have a little cat to alleviate my loneliness?"

Sylvie Comont, proud owner of seven cats and two dogs -- the environmental equivalent of a small fleet of cars -- says defiantly, "Our animals give us so much that I don't feel like a polluter at all.

"I think the love we have for our animals and what they contribute to our lives outweighs the environmental considerations.

"I don't want a life without animals," she told AFP.

And pets' environmental impact is not limited to their carbon footprint, as cats and dogs devastate wildlife, spread disease and pollute waterways, the Vales say.

With a total 7.7 million cats in Britain, more than 188 million wild animals are hunted, killed and eaten by feline predators per year, or an average 25 birds, mammals and frogs per cat, according to figures in the New Scientist.

Likewise, dogs decrease biodiversity in areas they are walked, while their faeces cause high bacterial levels in rivers and streams, making the water unsafe to drink, starving waterways of oxygen and killing aquatic life.

And cat poo can be even more toxic than doggy doo -- owners who flush their litter down the toilet ultimately infect sea otters and other animals with toxoplasma gondii, which causes a killer brain disease.

But despite the apocalyptic visions of domesticated animals' environmental impact, solutions exist, including reducing pets' protein-rich meat intake.

"If pussy is scoffing 'Fancy Feast' -- or some other food made from choice cuts of meat -- then the relative impact is likely to be high," said Robert Vale.

"If, on the other hand, the cat is fed on fish heads and other leftovers from the fishmonger, the impact will be lower."

Other potential positive steps include avoiding walking your dog in wildlife-rich areas and keeping your cat indoors at night when it has a particular thirst for other, smaller animals' blood.

As with buying a car, humans are also encouraged to take the environmental impact of their future possession/companion into account.

But the best way of compensating for that paw or clawprint is to make sure your animal is dual purpose, the Vales urge. Get a hen, which offsets its impact by laying edible eggs, or a rabbit, prepared to make the ultimate environmental sacrifice by ending up on the dinner table.

"Rabbits are good, provided you eat them," said Robert Vale.
© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service

Pshaw

2010-02-08T08:07:00.001-07:00

Also, if you saw this title and didn't read the entire post, I have no respect for your intellect.

Bill O'Reilly vs. John Stewart

2010-02-08T07:43:00.002-07:00

I finally watched Bill O'Reilly's interview with John Stewart. I really feel that both sides achieved NOTHING. There was a slim chance that something productive would come of this. Both of them had valid arguements, but neither got their point across. The WMD card goes to Bill. The race card goes to John (lighting the white house menorah).

I think each of them equally expressed their point, and each stood strong for their party... and both failed.

Maybe it's time to come to a compromise. Obama is an idiot. Nobody can dispute the fact that he pressed for a health care reform in the middle of the greatest economic crisis in the last 30 years (research the Carter administration). FIX THE F&#*ING ECONOMY YOU &*$^@ING IDIOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How anyone cannot see this as an attempt to erect a shrine to Obama, is beyond my comprehension. A 2,000 ft Obama-sphinx would have been less conspicuous.

I love Legos

2010-02-04T06:20:00.002-07:00

But I hate how screwed up the world we live in has become: 4th grade boy faces suspension due to a Lego gun.

And not a life-sized gun made from Legos, but a toy gun held by a 1.5" tall Lego action figure.

Dollhouse is so good

2010-01-13T21:16:00.001-07:00

Enver Gjokaj, as Victor, is absolutely AMAZING in Dollhouse season 2 episodes 5 and 6! He is imprinted with Topher's brain and runs the LA dollhouse while Topher is OOTO (the only person Topher (Fran Kranz) trusts is himself). Enver did such a good job that I thought Fran was doing voiceovers. And his mannerisms are spot on.

Episodes 5 and 6 are also the first episodes that include Summer Glau. That is right! Summer and Eliza in the SAME SHOW! I think about 3/4 of the Firefly cast has made it into a dollhouse episode. I suspect that Joss Whedon may have been imprinted with my mind. If Josie Maran makes an appearance, then I will be certain of it!

Also, the show has already been canceled.

My 2009 CD

2009-12-26T11:33:00.002-07:00

01 - Grand Avenue - Place To Fall - 01 - Almost Gone
I found Grand Avenue from their track "She" which was on the movie Cashback. That prompted me to check out the rest of their work. This song is second only to the title track as my favorite Grand Avenue song.

02 - Metric - Fantasies - 02 - Sick Muse
I have no idea how this got on my iPod. I'm crediting Marianne, because I know she is a Metric fan. I really like this album, especially "Gold, Guns, Girls". But I couldn't include that song considering all of whom I am handing this CD out to.

03 - Julian Plenti - Julian Plenti is... Skyscraper - 04 - Games For Days
Clayton mentioned this band to me. I almost made 1/2 this CD from Julian Plenti.

04 - Julian Plenti - Julian Plenti is... Skyscraper - 09 - On The Esplanade
See?

05 - Muse - The Resistance - 08 - I Belong To You - Mon Cœur S'ouvre À Ta Voix
I feel obligated to include a Muse song solely due to how incredible "Absolution" was. This choice was easier than their last album, but they still have not reclaimed the greatness that was "Absolution". This song starts and ends very well, but they drift off in the middle. Are you guys trying to be "artistic"? I'd rather you go back to kicking ass.

06 - B.B. King - Greatest Hits - 15 - Playin' With My Friends (Robert Cray)
You guys need some good old electric blues. B.B. is the greatest living bluesman. And a duet with Robert Cray? Yes please.

07 - Tegan & Sara - Sainthood - 05 - Red Belt
I love Tegan & Sara, even though this album didn't have as many standouts as the last few albums. I hope they aren't slipping like Muse has.

08 - Julian Plenti - Julian Plenti is... Skyscraper - 01 - Only If You Run
See?! See what I mean? Thank you Clayton.

09 - Imogen Heap - Ellipse - 12 - Canvas
I love Imogen's voice, but this album doesn't grab me like "Speak For Yourself".

10 - Alice In Chains - Black Gives Way To Blue - 06 - When The Sun Rose Again
I can't believe how much William DuVall sounds like Layne Staley. The first couple of tracks sound like Layne was singing. There are many great tracks on this album. It's worth checking out.

11 - Slipknot - All Hope Is Gone - 11 - Snuff
I knew that Corey Taylor wasn't all metal from some of his other projects. I think it's cool that he brought some of that to this album. As a side note, "Psychosocial" from this album is on my list of all-time favorite hard rock songs.

12 - Azure Ray - Burn And Shiver - 08 - Your Weak Hands
Seems a bit odd mentioning Azure Ray after talking about "Psychosocial". But that's why they aren't even on the same CD. Marianne introduced me to Azure Ray with her CD last year. I went out and bought all of their albums and found this song to be my favorite.

13 - Azure Ray - Hold On Love - 03 - We Are Mice
This song is even better if you watch the video for it.

14 - Grand Avenue - She - 10 - She
This song closed out the movie "Cashback" and introduced me to Grand Evenue.

15 - Grand Avenue - Place To Fall - 10 - Place To Fall
My favorite Grand Avenue song. Try finding Grand Avenue through normal channels. It's almost impossible to find this album or She, even on Amazon.com or iTunes. I found some European music site that will sell these albums, but didn't buy them yet in hopes of finding a US option.

Computers

2009-12-26T08:01:00.002-07:00

Everything is going real well with the computer right now. I've got lots of space and everything is fast. That means something horrible is about to happen to it.

You owe this man your life

2009-10-10T02:33:00.002-06:00

An awesome report: http://digg.com/d316gcy
It's a shame that he probably lives in poverty. I think every American should send him $1.

Whip it real good

2009-10-07T17:27:00.002-06:00

Today I had my first ever whip related incident. I was watching the season premiere of How I Met Your Mother, and due to the fact that they had a whip (and a Fedora, which I still do not have), I was compelled to grab my whip and mess around with it. I finally made a bruise on my hand and even drew blood. Hell yea, I'm manly.

Also, Honeyville farms makes a really crappy mint chocolate-milk mix. It tastes like someone put a few sticks of spearmint gum in hot water with a hint of chocolate. So, stick to Stephens.

And, to further prove that I'm better than you, your bread sucks compared to mine. The ingredients to my bred are: 100% Stone Ground Whole Wheat, Water, Honey, Raisin Juice Concentrate, Salt, Yeast. That's right, 6 ingredients. OWND! Oh yeah, and it's freaking delicious. You can thank me after you thank the Prairie Grain Bread Co.

This is me whining

2009-10-07T07:51:00.002-06:00

I just got off a 5 hour and 43 minute call. It was an issue that neither I nor my direct supervisor could resolve. I could be a bit cranky today, we'll see at Ulduar tonight (ToC25 is clear).

Scary news, bad cops

2009-10-06T11:07:00.002-06:00

This story is about a horrible mistake by a police officer. The intended cover-up is what scares me the most. I still inherently trust police officers and would never expect to see something like this again. This was a rare case of two very bad cops.

But the coverage of this story really pisses me off. There are only 3 results for the family name that were related to this incident, and only 1 of those 3 results were made the first page of a Google search! Why is this not getting as much attention as the Henry Gates arrest? BTW, Obama still hasn't apologized to Sgt James Crowley. That pisses me off too.

Radio Shack?

2009-09-26T12:31:00.003-06:00

I bought 2 power regulators from them yesterday, and the receipt is 20" long by 3.5" wide. I'm not complaining... I hate trees too!

The Onion even took them on.

2009-09-25T15:19:00.001-06:00

Some really cool looking stop-motion videos.
http://vimeo.com/6686768
I particularly liked the starscapes.

Idiot Carter

2009-09-16T07:45:00.002-06:00

Jimmy Carter is a bigot. His explanation of Representative Joe Wilson's outburst did not address if Carter believed that Wilson actually thought the president was lying or not. Carter's explanation effectively said that anyone who disagrees with the president is a racist. Doesn't a remark such as that make Carter just as ignorant as a racist?

To properly gage if Wilson honestly felt that the president was lying or not, you would have to be intimately familiar with Wilson's views on illegal immigrants and their access to federal social services. I highly doubt that Jimmy knows Joe well enough to ascertain his feelings on such a specific issue.

South Carolina's former Democratic Party chairman, Dick Harpootlian (who has known Joe for decades) doesn't even agree with the former president. He said: "I don't think Joe's outburst was caused by President Obama being African-American. I think it was caused by no filter being between his brain and his mouth."

Carter continued with: "There is an inherent feeling among many in this country that an African-American should not be president." And Carter was instantly willing to group Rep. Wilson in with those dorks. Carter went on to say: "The president is not only the head of government, he is the head of state," ... "And no matter who he is or how much we disagree with his policies, the president should be treated with respect."

You sir, do not have my respect.

Audiobooks

2009-09-13T11:02:00.002-06:00

Ok, these people need to get over themselves. How is it that they still charge anywhere from $30-50 for a single audiobook? And there is no discount when we buy it digitally? In that scenario, it's only costing them the storage and throughput costs, which is divided amongst all purchasers!

The cost of downloaded audiobooks should be closer to what a retail music CD costs ($10-15). And a retail CD-audiobook should cost no more than a deluxe edition DVD costs ($20-$25). How can we make this happen?

XKCD is my muse

2009-09-12T09:43:00.003-06:00

This comic is more truth than I'd ever admit.

Moab pictures on InterFaceLift

2009-09-12T06:42:00.002-06:00

I saw these and thought of you Jen:

You can find more on InterFaceLift.com Easily my favorite desktop wallpaper site.

I love Dropbox

2009-08-27T14:27:00.002-06:00

How many programs release binaries for EACH major OS? Not enough. That's one reason I love Dropbox. You can download their client for Windows, Mac, and Linux! They give 2 GB of storage for free, and if you use that referral link, we each get an extra 250 MB (capped at 3 GB).

If you're looking for a free way to backup your photo or music collection and have less than 2 GB of data, use this. You can get 50 GB for $10 a month and 100 GB for $20 a month. If you need more than 100 GB, then you should look into getting a NAS or SAN box (ask me if you have NAS or SAN questions).

My hobby

2009-08-12T06:45:00.001-06:00

When a co-worker is in a long and detailed discussion of some technical issue, send them a random nonsensical IM and listen to their train of thought derail.

The 7 second pause in conversation is the sweet sound of victory!

Also, don't use tanning beds

2009-07-28T23:53:00.000-06:00

Sorry Jen:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090729/ap_on_he_me/eu_med_tanning_beds_cancer

Swing your arms

2009-07-28T23:51:00.001-06:00

An interesting article on the energy cost of swinging your arms, or not, while you walk:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090728/sc_afp/sciencearmsoffbeat

While it may seem like a boring subject, I found it quite interesting. And it's a quick read.

The car audio/video features I'm waiting for

2009-07-28T07:06:00.000-06:00

1. Large touchscreen LCD for Blu-Ray and other video playback as well as for GPS navigation.
2. Detachable faceplate that acts like a PMP.
3. Internal storage, most or all on the faceplate, at least a couple hundred GB, to store what it grabs from the network.
4. 802.11n and software for multiple OS' that allows for automatic synchronization when the unit is within range of it's home network.
5. GSM based cellular internet access.
6. Google maps and Google street-view.
7. Upgradeable firmware to support advances in audio and video codecs.

I love jambalaya

2009-07-25T08:23:00.001-06:00

So I thought it would be nice to share the recipe that I use. WARNING: This recipe has been fully bachelorized and will not win any Cajun cooking contests. Bachelorization is the process of making food preparation faster and often requires fewer ingredients. My version is kind of a cross between Cajun and Creole jambalaya, sometime called "white jambalaya" since the protein spends less time cooking with the rice. This will feed 1-3 people.

1 cup white rice (You can use brown, but your jambalaya will shed it's bachelorized status due to the longer cooking time.)
2 cups water
1 pound sausage (Preferably Andouille, but good luck finding any locally. You can use chicken, shrimp, etc if you prefer.)
1/2 diced green bell pepper (I've tried a few different kinds, they are all about the same to me.)
Salt (Sea salt or plain iodine. You may want to avoid anything pre-spiced.)
Pepper (If you don't grind your own pepper, I hate you.)
Cayenne pepper

I don't use onions or celery because they tend to overpower the flavors that I like. Jambalaya devotees will think less of you for that. So if you use them, a half onion is more than enough. I was using about a quarter onion when I decided to stop buying them. And maybe 2 stalks of celery. I don't know, I never cared for it.

Cook the rice for 20 minutes, or however long your variant requires. Add salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper right at the start. You will need to experiment with those seasonings in order to get it right. I haven't tried "minute rice" since I expect that it doesn't have enough time to absorb the flavors properly. Add the diced pepper when you have about 8 minutes left for the rice. This keeps the pepper from getting mushy and will retain it's taste.

Cook the sausage in a large skillet. Most sausage is pre-cooked and only needs to be heated, but I prefer to brown the cut ends. I add a bit of oil to help prevent sticking and burning since I cook on higher heat than necessary. I cook them on the cut ends, and spread them out so each piece is cooking at the same time (no stacking). Add salt, pepper, and cayenne if you prefer (I do).

Add the sausage to the rice before the rice is done cooking, at least 4 minutes and I don't know of a maximum time. Don't be afraid to let some of the oil get in the mix, but separating it is fine. That's it, you're done. Let it cool if you're a wimp. Eat it out of the saucepan if you're awesome.

An easier way to explain this is: Cook rice with salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper. Dice up a half of a green bell pepper and add it when the rice has 8 minutes left. Add 1 pound of heated (browned) sausage giving it at least 4 minutes time with the rice (more time is better).

New Muse album in September

2009-07-07T07:15:00.002-06:00

TuneLab posted the track listing yesterday. I hope it's better than Black Holes And Revelations. Absolution was so amazing that I had nearly impossible expectations for them to meet.

Neda Agha-Soltan

2009-06-24T01:24:00.003-06:00

You've probably already heard of Neda.

About four days ago she was shot on the street as she and three friends were headed towards a rally. They had not even made it to the rally yet, and had nothing that would indicate to her assassin that they intended to protest. Her picture has become an icon for those opposed to the oppression wielded against the people of Iran.

A video of her death has made the rounds. This is graphic and uncut. If the picture at the top of the Wikipedia article is unsettling, please do not view the YouTube link.

Toy cars

2009-06-02T09:50:00.003-06:00

I remember playing with toy cars as a kid, just like any other boy in America. One thing that I found odd about some of the toy cars I had was a hole underneath the car, about center of the frame. Another odd thing about them was they were all gold (a few were silver).

I didn't find out until sometime in my 20's that those cars were the tops of racing trophies. He had so many that they were almost insignificant to him. My Dad is a pimp.

This is just one of the many pictures that he has of a pile of trophies in front of one of his cars. Click on the image to see the full size picture.

Notice the rear tires. The deformation you see is the effect of the torque rotating the inside of the tire faster than the outside. Those are "wrinkle wall" tires that are designed to do that, but it still takes a good deal of torque. So you can imagine that he can do almost anything with a car. Even to this day:

Yeah, the 51 Ford is a fast (and loud) car.

He used to be a bit of a punk back in high school and during part of his racing days. He'd punch you in the face if you upset his wife or daughters (he still would too). He's probably been in more fights than any 20 people I know. It's fun listening to he and his brothers talk about the old days.

I want to note that he is freakishly smart too. He can do long division in his head, instantly. And he knows just about anything, at least from his time. Imagine an encyclopedia from the 70's. He has about that much information in his head.

He can build a house. When I say that, I mean every single insignificant step. I've seen him draft plans on old-school blueprint paper. I've watched and helped him frame up and pour footings for a foundation, frame walls, insulate those walls (and attic), run pluming, electrical, and ventilation. Don't forget sheetrock, oh man, I've done a lot of sheetrock and cannot imagine how much he must have done in his time.

I can identify the parts of my personality that I've gotten from my father. All of his kids have his intelligence, wit, charm, and sense of loyalty. We also have a desire to learn that comes from both him and our mother.

I couldn't ask for better parents.

Obvious?

2009-05-20T03:00:00.001-06:00

You ladies may feel bad when your husband doesn't notice a new hairstyle or some other significant change. Well I probably have him beat. I just found out a lady here at work is 8 months pregnant. I had no idea. And she's a tiny little thing. I guess it was obvious to everyone else. At least that's how everyone made it out as they laughed at my obtuse observation skills.

Eliza Dushku

2009-05-06T12:53:00.005-06:00

The more I read about Eliza Dushku, the more I like her.

It's a shame that Dollhouse may be canceled. This is one of the best shows on TV right now. I encourage you all to support this project and support it's cast.

Please, before it is too late, watch this show and support intelligent and creative content.

2009-04-20T16:49:00.001-06:00

Question of the day

2009-04-20T03:13:00.001-06:00

Customer: "Does this need Java?" (In reference to a WebEx session)
Adam: "I'm not certain. Is it giving you an error?"
Customer: "Yeah, it says that it requires Java. I'll download it real quick."

That is when I hit the mute button.

Illegal downloads

2009-04-20T01:54:00.001-06:00

The Pirate Bay lost it's court battle Friday, and while I don't have much to say about this case in particular, I do take serious issue with copyright holders attacking technology.

Sites like The Pirate Bay, obviously, are kind of asking for it. The problem that I have is when technology is attacked as a byproduct of cleaning up piracy. Napster, Kazaa, and Bittorrent are good examples. None of these technologies host(ed) copyrighted material. All of these technologies have the ability to be used in a perfectly legal manner.

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) allows users to keep one "backup" of copyrighted material. This means if I own a Rush CD (I legally own every Rush album and DVD), it would be legal for me to download any Rush album. If I have a friend who legally owns that same album, it would be legal for me to transfer a copy to that friend. I am not certain how legal it is or is not for me to provide that content to any random person on the network (I have never shared any Rush album publicly). I presume it is illegal. The DMCA may cover that, but I have not read the entire document, it's long.

If we start requiring web sites to monitor every byte of data, we face a bit of hypocrisy. We don't attempt to monitor much of what is transferred over our highways. The transfer of information over a network is very similar to the transfer of goods over a roadway. If we sue every site that doesn't scrutinize the data it let's users transfer, then couldn't we sue the government for not scrutinizing every car or truck that could be carrying drugs, illegal weapons, or known criminals over their roadways?

Somalia has a flourishing pirate industry

2009-04-18T00:27:00.001-06:00

OWND!

Three out of four pirates are taken out by snipers shooting from the deck of a nearby destroyer. This was reportedly done on choppy waters, which isn't that big of a deal for a destroyer class warship, but can be substantial movement for a 28' lifeboat.

If you think further about what happened, they couldn't have picked off the pirates one by one because they would have used the hostage as a human shield and moved into the visual obscurity of the lifeboat interior. So that means 3 Navy SEALS fired in unison and all hit their target.

Now think of it from the 4th pirate's perspective. You are on the lifeboat, it's getting dark, and are hit by a splash of what your mind perceives as warm sea water. About a half second later the report of the three sniper rifles reaches your ear and you realize that "sea water" was too warm. It was the blood of your former comrades, now lifelessly falling off the boat and into the choppy ocean. You turn and stare at the massive destroyer that instantly changed your fate from one of control, to possible instant termination at their discretion. Survival instincts kick in and force you to drop your weapon and raise your arms in surrender. You feel so very French.

Indians crack me up

2009-04-12T19:44:00.002-06:00

At work, we have a lot of systems in Bangalore India. A few things that are common for all Indians are that they can talk crazy-fast, their accent is often difficult to understand, and the phone network there must be very unreliable, because if you don't make some noise every five second, they ask "hello?" to see if you are there. After about five times in a minute, it gets annoying. So after the 6th time, instead of answering with "yes" or "I'm still here", I answer with "annyong".

A side note, if someone says "annyong" at work on the third shift, there will be 2-5 replies of "annyong". I've trained them well.

Possibly the best way to tell someone they are lazy

2009-04-01T00:41:00.000-06:00

LMGTFY

More power!

2009-03-24T10:48:00.002-06:00

I just put in a second PSU, slaved to my Antec NeoPower 550. My case (a CoolerMaster Stacker 810) has provisioning for a second PSU, and even provided the adapter to trigger the second PSU when the first is turned on.

I'm using one PCI-E plug from each PSU to power my GTX 260. I've been having PC lockups that are similar to what I experienced when I got my first high powered video card but didn't have the power to drive it. I will test this tonight and tomorrow to see if the issue recurs.

Backup

2009-03-21T08:19:00.002-06:00

Everyone that reads this (like, 3 of you) have data on your hard drive (pictures, music, etc) that would be difficult if not impossible to replace if that hard drive died. I work for a company that makes the most reliable backup devices in the world, so I've decided that I'd impart some of that knowledge.

Backups for a home user can be broken down into two solutions, remote storage and local storage.

Remote storage is when you backup to a device somewhere other than your home. Usually you will pay a company to store your data for you on their servers and you will backup by uploading your files to them over the internet. This is what I would recommend for most people for a few reasons. First, they are going to have hardware that you will never be able to afford, which means they will NEVER lose your data. Second, since they are off-site, your backups are safe from any tragedy that may happen at your house (theft, fire, etc). And most of these services maintain multiple mirrored sites, so not even a hurricane or earthquake could jeopardize your data. Third, you can usually access your backups from anywhere in the world. Fourth, they will sometimes do independent virus scans, adding one more level of protection.

But a remote solution means you can only backup as fast as your connection to that service allows. Even with broadband your upload speed is often a fraction of your download speed. So if you have 10 GB of pictures to upload, that may take several days to properly backup. And a remote solution will usually have a monthly fee. This means you will lose access to your data if you stop paying, and in that sense, you never "own" your backups.

I've only done a bit of research regarding online backups, but I have been very impressed with Mozy (http://mozy.com/). They give you 2 GB of backup for free, and if you need more than that, it's $5 a month for unlimited storage.

Local storage is when you have a storage device at home that you backup to. The greatest advantage of this method is that the backups are very fast. You also get the advantage of ownership, so you don't lose access to your data if you miss a payment.

But the disadvantages of this are many. First, a virus that gets past your antivirus software will probably get your backup too. Second, a local tragedy like theft, fire, or power issues may leave you with no recourse for data recovery. Third, these are not as robust as professional systems.

Examples of local storage range from an extra hard drive in your PC to externally connected backup devices. The external devices may connect via USB, eSATA, or network. Some of these solutions can also act like centralized storage for all of your computers.

Ding 80

2009-03-05T05:25:00.001-07:00

My Warlock just hit 80.

Chain-link love signs

2009-03-01T02:57:00.003-07:00

I cross an overpass to and from work several times a week, and many times there will be words spelled out using disposable plastic or styrofoam cups pressed into the chain-link fence. It's usually "so-and-so (heart) someone-else". One of these days I'm going to start changing the heart symbols to greater-than symbols.

Before you think I'm a heartless bastard (actually, I am), know this. These dorks rarely come back and clean up the mess. After a few days, 1/3 of the cups have fallen out and litter the sidewalk. I'm not a tree-hugger, but I really don't like my city getting all trashed-up by lazy lovesick saps. What a great way to show your devotion to someone, put up a large public sign that eventually litters our nice town.

Lisa Hannigan is my muse

2009-02-09T00:42:00.000-07:00

Well not really, but Lisa released Sea Sew in the US last week. So anyone that didn't want to order it from the UK can now pick it up in a local shop. I encourage people with ears to buy this album.

We don't like Kate Hudson anymore?

2009-02-08T01:32:00.001-07:00

Yahoo news just posted a list of stars we are no longer in love with. Kate Hudson is on that list, which I find stupid because I watched "Almost Famous" again last night, and only a robot could not love every member of that cast. I particularly like Patrick Fugit and Frances McDormand. And humans will never produce a movie with a better soundtrack.

Speaking of Almost Famous, if you don't own the "Bootleg Cut", you suck as a human. It has at least 3 extended or cut scenes that made the movie substantially better for me.

Ding!

2009-01-30T20:37:00.000-07:00

My Paladin ding'd 80 two days ago. Three down and 5 to go.

RAWR! The bear dings 80.

2009-01-26T05:48:00.001-07:00

So my Druid hit lvl 80 about 2 weeks ago. I meant to post then but I'm lazy.

Also, my Paladin hit lvl 78 last night. Should be 80 this weekend.

Hamas sucks at math

2009-01-18T07:36:00.002-07:00

In the last 3 weeks, 1,200 Palestinians and at least 13 Israelis have died. A 100 to 1 failure ratio and they still had the bright idea to launch a few rockets after the latest cease fire.

iTunes is bloatware

2009-01-16T11:23:00.003-07:00

I have what most people would call a badass computer. I've got one of the most powerful processors, 4 Gig of system RAM, 2.5 terabytes of SATA2 storage, and nearly the best video card that money can buy.

So why is it that iTunes runs like I'm cruising with a 386SX? Vertical scrolling is a joke, and the stupid app takes almost a minute from double-click to load.

If it wasn't such a great store and I didn't care about legally purchasing content that I enjoy, I'd never use it.

My crush of the day

2009-01-08T07:05:00.002-07:00

Just watched the 13th episode of Heroes season 3, and realized how cute Brea Grant is. She sells the pixie cut better than 95% of the women that try. This is clearly proven in one of her IMDB pictures.

No stupid questions?

2009-01-02T05:53:00.002-07:00

Here's a common lie: There are no stupid questions.

I recently received an e-mail from my boss asking for an update on a few things I have been working on. Particularly, he wanted an update about tasks that have taken more than 5 days. I didn't know if he wanted to know why they were taking more than 5 days, or if he wanted an update about how they were progressing. The difference is subtle, but I wasn't certain of what he wanted in the update.

So I asked. I guess that I was the only person to ask (the same e-mail was sent to most of us). Even though he was vague with his request, and even though I could see two possible and different yet correct answers to his request, I was the only person who asked. So to my boss it appears that I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed, because he was not able to anticipate that there could be 2 different yet correct answers to the question.

BTW, he wanted an update on each case that was taking more than 5 days. And this is probably going to be a new task for us to do each day. Just one more example of adding more straws to the camel's back. And then when we complain about our workload, they will point to metrics that show we have had fewer calls than 6 months ago, so we have no room to complain. Yeah, but 6 months ago we didn't have 10 extra daily tasks to do.

Details about my 2008 CD

2009-01-01T09:43:00.000-07:00

Overall, keep in mind that I don't include songs with the intention of conveying any messages. In fact, I will usually exclude songs because I don't want anyone thinking that a theme was intended. So if you find a hidden message or something offensive, it is probably a coincidence.

01. Ashes Divide - Keep Telling Myself It's Alright - 02 - Denial Waits
You are all lucky (or unlucky) that my 2008 CD wasn't just this entire album.

02. Ashes Divide - Keep Telling Myself It's Alright - 04 - Forever Can Be
I love the line "We all want... you to see... the you we see". If more people would see themselves the way their family and friends saw them, this world would be a better place.

03. Ashes Divide - Keep Telling Myself It's Alright - 06 - Enemies
Do not listen to this song while driving, it makes you speed. This song kicks more ass than any 3 songs ever written. Well not really, because songs like "Pet", "Judith", "Man In The Box" etc, are all about as powerful.

04. Rilo Kiley - Under The Blacklight - 06 - Dreamworld
I love Rilo Kiley because they have interesting lyrics and Jenny Lewis has a nice voice. But this is hands down my favorite song of theirs, ever, and it's one of the few new songs that is sung by Blake.

05. Rilo Kiley - Take Offs & Landings - 03 - Wires And Waves
Just a catchy tune. I almost didn't include it because of the "planes they smash up in the sky" line seeming forboding with Marianne's job.

06. Rilo Kiley - More Adventurous - 09 - Love And War (11-11-46)
I just like this song. Jenny does a good job and this is a good example of how she could sing just about anything.

07. Rilo Kiley - More Adventurous - 02 - Does He Love You?
This song isn't the best of topics, but it ends with so much emotion in Jenny's voice, and that's one of the things that will sell me on a song. If the singer sounds like they believe in what they are singing, I find that to be more engrossing than clever lyrics or beautiful playing. However, this song has clever lyrics and is well written too. I was going to include "The Slow Fade Of Love" because it's such a beautiful song too, but both this song and that together would be too depressing for one mix disk.

08. Cream - The Very Best Of Cream - 20 - Badge
I've had Cream's greatest hits album for years and had never really given this song the listen that it needed. About mid December I was listening to the album again, and was just blown away by Badge. It was written by George Harrison and Eric Clapton for the last album, and is a perfect example of how genius those guys are.

09. Lisa Hannigan - Sea Sew - 06 - Keep It All
Since many of you may only know Lisa through her affiliation with Damian Rice (her album was only recently available in the US), I thought that including one of the examples of how fun and alluring her solo work is would be a good idea. In Keep It All her voice is both sweet and sultry. This is singing, something that modern Top-40 sluts could never reproduce. And Lisa will probably not make 1/100th of what those ho-bags make.

10. Lisa Hannigan - Sea Sew - 08 - Pistachio
This is an example of Lisa singing light and fun. You should have seen her in concert, she could segue naturally from simple and slow to fast and powerful.

11. Spoon - Gimme Fiction - 07 - I Summon You
I've loved this song ever since KaRyn tried to put it on a mix disk for me (she put 'The Infinite Pet' on by mistake).

12. Paramore - Twilight - 02 - Decode
I bought the Twilight soundtrack for this song alone. It was worth it, even if this had been the only decent song...

13. The Black Ghosts - Twilight - 03 - Full Moon
...but the soundtrack had other songs of value. About 2/3 of them are great, and none of them sucked.

14. The Weakerthans - Purchased - 01 - Virtue the Cat Explains Her Departure
This song is from the perspective of a pet cat. It's a sad song describing how a pet misses it's owner after a bad breakup brought the owner into a depression.

15. The Weakerthans - Purchased - 02 - Pamphleteer
Another slow song. I love the part where he describes how he doesn't know what to do with his hands when they talk, and she doesn't know where to look, so she looks at his hands. It paints a picture of two shy people clumsily meeting up.

16. The Weakerthans - Purchased - 03 - Plea from a Cat Named Virtue
Virtue has had enough of the emo and is now demanding that it's owner cheer up.

17. Bury Your Dead - Beauty And The Breakdown - House Of Brick
I am a firm believer that EVERY genre has quality music in it. It is my opinion that if you hate a certain genre, it's because you haven't put in enough effort to find the right songs. However, some genres take a LOT more work to find the good songs. That is why I don't own much country music. This song is a perfect example of hardcore metal that is well played. The lyrics are a bit stereotyped, but the guitar is done very well.

And that's my 2008 CD. If you need a copy, let me know. I can make a digital version available or burn you a disk if you prefer.

Shure SE110 headphones... suck

2009-01-01T08:54:00.001-07:00

I bought a pair of these ear-canal headphones and here is my 2 month review. These are in-ear or canal-phones, and cost about $99 retail. For that price they are targeting people that want something better than the stock PMP headphones that came with their iPod or Zune. However I think that both Zune owners have already upgraded. These aren't real audiophile headphones (no canal-phones are IMO) for the reasons I will list below. Most of my complaints are actually problems with the in-ear style that many manufacturers use, and not actual complaints about anything that is unique to these headphones.

The sound quality is very good. Bass representation is very good and is one of the strengths of all in-ear designs. Mids and highs are clear and full, but I've heard sound that seems like high-frequency compression artifacts or saturated drivers. The times I've noticed it required volumes that could have saturated the output of my iPod, and therefore would be unfair to blame the headphones. More testing is required on my part, so I will use the headphones that I use for Ventrilo on my gaming PC, and also plug the 110's into the output of my Audigy X-Fi.

These are amazing at blocking outside noise, which is how they are marketed. This comes at the cost of hearing EVERYTHING that goes on inside your body. Closing your mouth will yield the teeth clicking sound. This could result in you never closing your mouth fully. Coughing will scare the living crap out of you the first time. Breathing (yes, breathing) will be slightly disruptive during quiet segments of your music. Don't bother eating while listening to these headphones. And walking forces you to turn the volume up higher than you otherwise might play your music. You will hear the sound of your feet impacting the floor transfer through your bones to your ears. Normally this sound escapes out the ear and is not noticeable. If you want to know what this sounds like, stick your fingers in your ears and walk around on a hard floor.

The cords "microphones" a lot more than other headphone designs. Microphoning is when headphone cords make contact with something (like sliding over your shirt) and results in unwanted noise at the earpiece. My coat has a zipper, and when the cord moves over that zipper, it is about as disruptive as anything could possibly be.

I keep my ears pretty clean. I go through Q-tips faster than most guys, partly because I can't stand water or wax in my ears. So my ears get swabbed after every shower. At the end of work, there is a light glaze of wax on the sleeves that fit the earbuds in order to block outside noise. This makes an almost sickening sound as you remove the headphones. It's somewhat easy to clean them, but do you keep a tissue with you everywhere you go? Nope, so you are cleaning the headphones on your jeans. If you are adverse to ear wax, you should probably not buy headphones that come with a tool designed to clean wax out of the device. I now keep a small box of Q-tips at my desk at work because of these headphones.

I would rate the comfort at 75-95%. I never got to the point that I didn't know they were in my ears. They come with three sets of foam sleeves (three different sizes) and three sets made of rubber. Like foam earplugs you may have used, you compress the foam before inserting them in your ear. Then you wait for the foam to expand. This means it takes about 10 seconds per ear to put these headphones in when using those sleeves. The foam sleeves are a bit more comfortable for me, but a lot less convenient when putting in and taking out the headphones a lot. The foam sleeves also block more sound, which results in even more internal noise. But the rubber sleeves clean off better. Still, there's no way I'd share these with anyone without swapping sleeves.

It should be noted that both sound and comfort will vary a lot depending on how well you fit them. This includes selecting the proper sleeve and making sure the 110's are put in your ear properly. It's not rocket science, but it can be done wrong. And you may find that the sleeves that are the most comfortable are not the ones that sound the best. Also, the rubber sleeves can form a seal before they are fully in place, leading to the feeling of a pressure change in your ear canal after you finish pushing them further in place.

Overall, these are very good headphones if you don't move or breathe, and don't mind ear-wax. My opinion is that supra-aural headphones are the best choice for most applications. Since most supra-aural headphones are large, they may not be the best choice for a portable application. But I will never buy another pair of canal-phones. My Bang and Olufsen (http://www.bang-olufsen.com/) A8's were superior in every way but comfort and price.

How cute are we?

2008-12-25T08:57:00.005-07:00

My brother Tom, myself, and my sister Jennifer.

Click on the picture to see it properly. I don't have time to figure out how Blogger.com handles image constraints. Standard HTML isn't working.

My 2008 CD

2008-12-22T20:36:00.003-07:00

01. Ashes Divide - Keep Telling Myself It's Alright - 02 - Denial Waits
02. Ashes Divide - Keep Telling Myself It's Alright - 04 - Forever Can Be
03. Ashes Divide - Keep Telling Myself It's Alright - 06 - Enemies
04. Rilo Kiley - Under The Blacklight - 06 - Dreamworld
05. Rilo Kiley - Take Offs & Landings - 03 - Wires And Waves
06. Rilo Kiley - More Adventurous - 09 - Love And War (11-11-46)
07. Rilo Kiley - More Adventurous - 02 - Does He Love You?
08. Cream - The Very Best Of Cream - 20 - Badge
09. Lisa Hannigan - Sea Sew - 06 - Keep It All
10. Lisa Hannigan - Sea Sew - 08 - Pistachio
11. Spoon - Gimme Fiction - 07 - I Summon You
12. Paramore - Twilight - 02 - Decode
13. The Black Ghosts - Twilight - 03 - Full Moon
14. The Weakerthans - Purchased - 01 - Virtute the Cat Explains Her Departure
15. The Weakerthans - Purchased - 02 - Pamphleteer
16. The Weakerthans - Purchased - 03 - Plea from a Cat Named Virtue
17. Bury Your Dead - Beauty And The Breakdown - House Of Brick

More about the CD later.

American auto makers take note

2008-12-17T09:06:00.001-07:00

Ford, Chevy, and Dodge should change their advertisements. They should give up on the "Our cars kick ass" idiom and try something like "Senate declines automaker bailout. Buy American you assholes."

My latest PC upgrade

2008-12-11T05:29:00.001-07:00

Here are the parts I bought for this last upgrade:

$189 - ASUS M3A79-T Deluxe AM2+/AM2 AMD 790FX ATX AMD Motherboard
$173 - AMD Phenom 9950 2.6GHz Socket AM2+ 125W Quad-Core Black Edition Processor Model HD995ZXAGHBOX
$129 - Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
$129 - Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31500341AS 1.5TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
$119 - GeIL Evo One 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model GE24GB1066C5DC
$54 - ASUS Arctic Square 92mm Vapo Bearing CPU Cooler
$27 - SAMSUNG 22X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model SH-S223Q
$25 - LG 22X DVD±R DVD Burner Black SATA Model GH22NS30
-------
= $1018
This was spread over 3 paychecks, so it wasn't nearly as painful as you might think. I got the WD Caviar first, and found the larger Seagate on sale about 3 weeks later. Oh well.

Here's the CPU-Z validator link.

Ding 80!

2008-11-25T14:13:00.001-07:00

BGK just ding'd 80. Now I can kinda relax. Seven more to level now.

New hardware today

2008-11-25T08:31:00.002-07:00

At least I will have something to do while the servers are coming back up. I've ordered some new PC hardware that should arrive sometime in the next few hours. I hope to have the Windows machine running again before servers come back up.

The new specs will be:
AMD Phenom quad core 9950 2.6 GHz 125w CPU (I didn't get one of the new 140 watt models, they have been out of stock for weeks now).
ASUS M3A79-T Deluxe AM2+ 790FX Motherboard
GeIL Evo One 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500)

I'm still using my PNY GeForce 7800 GTX, and will probably continue to use it for at least another month before buying an nVidia 200 series. After that I'd like to get a quad-rack (or larger) LCD mount and a few more monitors, 2-3 for the main PC. The backup PC will probably stay at one monitor, but I'd like a rack large enough to mount an LCD television above the monitors. Yeah, I won't be spending a lot of time outdoors.

Pandora Classic Rock

2008-11-25T08:26:00.002-07:00

Pandora.com is pissing me off today (I usually love it). I used their "Classic Rock" genre as a starter for one of my channels, and it's putting up to 90's rock in there. Hey, I like a few Sublime songs, but nobody on the planet considers them classic rock yet. They just don't mesh well with the Beatles, the Doors, CCR, Aeorsmith, ZZ Top, Journey, etc.

I guess I should check to see if they have a decade restricted classic rock station.

WoW update

2008-11-25T08:06:00.002-07:00

My main, BigGuyKills (Troll Priest), is level 79 and less than 600k XP from 80. I should ding about 2-3 hours after the server comes up at noon today.

A few PC crashes caused me to fall behind. I spent at least 1.5 days trying to fix the Windows machine. I spent another 4 hours getting the expansion DVD to install in Linux.

Seriously, is Blizzard unable to spend maybe $80k a year to hire a developer that ports WoW to Linux? They make something like 15 MILLION each MONTH just in subscription fees.

For anyone interested in WoW under Linux, The best solution for the WotLK expansion DVD is to mount it as root and copy the entire disk to the HD and install from there. If you use one of the more secure and user friendly installs like Fedora or Ubuntu, the command is:

  sudo mount -t udf -o ro,unhide /dev/dvd /media/dvd

You will probably need to unmount the DVD first though, so this step may be required before the last one:

  sudo umount /media/dvd

That command may need to be altered depending on the location of your mount points and devices. The /media/dvd directory is what worked for my Linux install, Ubuntu 8.04, Hardy Heron. Some distro's may need to know your UID. Get your UID with 'id -u' at the terminal. Then unmount the disk like above and run this:

  sudo mount -t udf -o ro,unhide,uid=(number) /dev/dvd /media/dvd

Hope that helps. I know I'll probably have to check this post the next time I install Linux.

Tuesday mornings suck

2008-11-25T07:58:00.003-07:00

I am up, but the server is down. I hate weekly maintenance. This may be the worst part of working nights.

But at least Miranda Kerr is hot:

My political post

2008-11-02T10:06:00.002-07:00

I was reading up on issues at both candidates web sites. From them, have a few points that bothered me. I'm a Republican, and have seen nothing from Obama that would convince me to vote for him. Because of this, most of my views will be right-slanted.

From the Barack Obama web site about McCain: "giving $200 billion in tax cuts to corporations, including $4 billion in tax breaks to Big Oil".

I'm going to rag on Obama here. This is misinformation, something that Democrats use liberally (a superb pun) to falsely inform their undereducated followers (I reference the portion of Democrats that are undereducated and am not calling all Democrats undereducated). The $4 billion to big oil portion of this quote is designed to make readers think that a component of this plan was created just for oil companies. It wasn't. The $200 billion includes companies in every sector, and the plan was not designed to exclude any company or industry. Since it wasn't exclusive, oil companies are just some of the many that will benefit from this. Intelligent Democrats will probably see this as no big deal, but the uneducated masses that often vote Democrat because they want to continue receiving handouts will see this as proof that McCain is in bed with the oil companies. This $4 billion is brought up many times on the Obama web site. After the third time it just struck me as tacky. Such tactics should insult intelligent Democrats. It's like saying you need to be lied to in order to secure your vote.

Obama website: "John McCain has no plan to end the war in Iraq, and would keep spending $10 billion a month in Iraq"

Does anyone think McCain wants to drag out the Iraq conflict? Making sure Iraq can stand on its own is not the same as dragging out the war. Leaving premature could result in tragedy. If that happens, then all the sacrifice America has endured for Iraq could be for nothing. McCain is a vet, he has lost many friends in combat. Until I have had the same experiences (and I hope that never happens to me), I trust his perspective on war. The fact that McCain hasn't promised a fast withdrawal, like the public seems to want, speaks volumes about his character and beliefs.
What I don't like about either candidate? Taxes. They each promise tax cuts like that's the solution for all that ails America. It's my opinion that in this trying economic time, we should maybe keep taxes where they are or even raise them a bit in order to help fund the programs we need to get the country back on track. All the talk of tax cuts makes me feel like I'm just being told what they think I want to hear.

Energy: I think McCain has Obama beat by a slight margin. I think Palin has them both beat, and I was happy to hear her willingness to disagree with McCain in the VP debate with regard to northern shelf drilling.

I don't think we can "talk it out" with irrational world leaders. I think sanctions should be our primary leverage and they can come to us when they are ready to play nice. We should set limits regarding what we will allow and if they step over the line even slightly, we should be willing to use force.

Otherwise, I don't have a lot of issues with either candidate. I have reservations about both. Obama has a few things that scare me. McCain has a few things that disappoint me. But overall, I think we will be well served by either. I'm still going to vote McCain because I think he is a better leader and I think he is better suited to lead our country at this point in our history.

And for the record, Cindy McCain is a babe.

I'm not a fan of Howard Stern, but...

2008-10-27T12:16:00.002-06:00

This is both funny and scary. Our future may be decided by the ignorant masses:

Howard Stern Audio clip about voters in Harlem.

Illidan down!

2008-10-24T00:10:00.002-06:00

We killed Illidan! The last boss of Black Temple used to be the toughest boss in World of Warcraft (a new instance was added a few months ago that is more difficult than Black Temple), so we "beat the game" so to speak.

This is what we were pushing for. We wanted to hit this milestone before the next expansion hits in November. So I'm pleased.

I am putty in gadget manufacturers hands

2008-10-23T05:00:00.002-06:00

This is awesome. Logitech has made an extremely authentic guitar-game-controller for Rock Band (I hyphenated those to keep that from being misinterpreted). It has rosewood fingerboard, metal frets, a wood neck, and metal tuning pegs. It even comes with a "gig bag" for the guitar, which I think is mandatory since this thing costs $250. The images make it look amazing. This is guaranteed to impress your friends when you head to their house to play.

But you are going to pay for that impression as you ride the bus to your friends house. When people see the guitar bag, they ask about it. You lose all the coolness of being a guitarist when you explain that it's a game controller for a PS3. HAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAA! NERD!

Anyways, they are even adding a new method of playing, the neck slider. As these things get more and more complex, will they reach the point that it would be easier to just learn to play a REAL guitar?

Another ding

2008-09-20T07:51:00.001-06:00

My Human Pally on Frostwolf dinged 70 yesterday. That makes eight characters at level 70.

Missing Media

2008-09-15T07:59:00.003-06:00

I'm trying to make a proper list of all of my media, mostly CD's and DVD's. If you have any of mine, would you post a comment or send me an e-mail please.

Some of the ones I know that I'm missing are:
Sports Night (entire series in 1 collection)
Arrested Development Season 1
Matrix Revolutions

...and probably a few others. Thanks.

I love Lisa

2008-09-12T04:32:00.002-06:00

Lisa is coming to SLC! October 28th. This is it, from the crowd I will catch her eye and thus will begin a lot of awesomeness. I've stated in the past that I've had a crush on her since I first heard her sing on Damien's CD's. I already have my ticket.

I guess Jason Mraz is closing for her. Meh. He's never really impressed me, but I can deal with it, so long as Lisa is there. And who knows, maybe Jason Mraz puts on an amazing live show. He just seems like a gimmick to me. Like he's singing to make money and not because he loves making music.

BTW, you can get Lisa's new album at her site. Costs just over 21 Euros after shipping.

My mother is the Kwisatz Haderach

2008-09-09T15:31:00.003-06:00

Link, for anyone not familiar with Dune.

A brief layman's explanation is that the Kwisatz Haderach was able to see any place, any time. It meant they knew more than anyone else could know. This is the way in which I use it.

I honestly believe that mothers are given by God a special stewardship over their children, and are given insight into when to reach out to them.

This week was bad for me. I had setup a bill to be paid directly from my bank account, and then forgot that it would go through. This left me very low on money, like $20 to last me two weeks. But my mom called me from the grocery store and asked if there was anything that I needed. I said "no, I'm ok", but she kept offering, like she knew I needed something.

She doesn't do this often, and every time that she does, it's when I'm nearly destitute. One time I was completely out of money and food, but when I went outside that day, there were 3 bags of groceries on my doorstep.

There are only a few things in this world that I'm 100% certain of, and my mothers love is one of them.

Payday Friday

2008-08-29T13:45:00.002-06:00

I'm making the mistake of judging the new Slipknot album while playing my Warlock.

For anyone that plays WoW, a Warlock, once properly geared (like mine is), is AN ABSOLUTE GOD in the game. It's not uncommon to have arrogant players attack me thinking I'm an easy kill. Those chumps usually end their life face down in the mud with me, at nearly full health, roaring my pleasure at their demise for all to hear.

So obviously I'm kinda in the mood for energetic music. Thanks Ryan, you goat. I also got the new B.B. King album and the new Theory Of A Deadman. I expect each of those to deal a solid amount of ass kicking.

Today I had a decent day at work. I've been getting further and further behind due to the disparity of workload between the first and second half of my shift. I can get a proper quantity of work done in the first half, but the second half is almost pure calls, which usually all end in new cases for my backlog, and none of my existing cases getting the attention needed to keep my case load from incrementing. We honestly need at least 2 more people to cover the second half of my shift and bring balance to the Force... err... I mean... make my job easier.

If you didn't get that last quote, watch more Star Wars.

But the last call I took was fun. It was for a problem with a tape drive, and the company was in Scotland. The cool part was that the person who opened the case was a woman. I'm a sucker for any GB accent, and a Scottish accent is nigh perfect IMO. And her voice was about as cute as a mortal could achieve. Add to all this that I was able to make her laugh on call made me feel like I'm less of a loser than I really am.

It's little things like that which can easily make my day or even make my week.

Two downsides of the 4th of July in America

2008-07-05T09:47:00.001-06:00

#1. If you work graves, fireworks in your neighborhood during the middle of your sleep period sound like gunshots. If you are the type who owns weapons for home defense, this triggers a reaction that is not pleasant. Luckily, I realized what it was before I had even reached the key to the cable lock for my shotgun.

#2. Some kinds of fireworks sound remarkably like rain on my roof if the distance is just right. Unfortunately, I did NOT realize this until I was fully dressed and jogging outside to put the convertible top up on my car halfway through my sleep period. Damn neighbors!

The first point happened about four times last night, but only the first time did I mistake it for gunfire. The second point happened only twice. Can't wait for the 24th!

2008-05-21T05:00:00.000-06:00

I decided to pretend to be mature for a few minutes of my month by setting up a simple budget. I haven't done any semblance of a budget since about 2004. Since it's been so long, I didn't bother trying to look for my old spreadsheet, that would take forever and wouldn't be a wise appropriation of time. And you all know that I want to spend my hours at work making certain that I don't waste company time.

So I did what any modern person would do, I Google'd it. My search for "budget spreadsheet" returned the usual plethora of results. I went through about 5 spreadsheet downloads, and ended up liking the first result the best. Vertex42 was that version that I liked the best. You may also want to try the Microsoft "Template" site where you can search for budget related files. That site had some good and some bad. I didn't find anything in there that did more than the Vertex42 sheet, so I stopped looking after a while.

The Vertex42 sheet has everything that I need. The layout is nice, easily fits into the width of a standard medium resolution monitor (no side scrolling), has the more important top rows locked so they always appear on screen, and has plenty of rows to put in any expense you could think of.

I also messed around with an online budget system from Pear Budget. It's rather simple and easy to use. This system would be perfect for someone who wants to be able to manage the budget from more than one location (from work and home, or from multiple computers/PDA's/SmartPhones). The downside is that this is a paid service. But at only $3 a month, anyone that can afford an internet connection should be able to justify that cost.

The site is very well done, and I say that from a web developer's point of view. I've signed up for their free 30 day trial which I will probably convert to a paid account this Friday (payday). That way I can use it from the 4+ computers that I use at 3+ locations. Synchronizing a spreadsheet over multiple computers is a pain, and it tends to not get synch'd as often as it should.

After working through 3 budgets, the numbers show that I could save about $600 a month, leaving me with seven to eight thousand dollars in my bank each year. If that's the case, why am I always broke? I guess for it to work, I need to put everything in there, no matter how trivial. Then see where all that wasted money is being spent. Now I just need the motivation to do that much work. I'm hoping that it will come with time.

I'd like some other people's ideas and suggestions about budgeting. Post a comment with what you do, even if it's just to say that you use a standard spreadsheet. If you do use a spreadsheet, try the Vertex42 version and tell me what you think. I'm very interested to know if there is something that this sheet is missing.

Time for my monthly post

2008-04-19T07:38:00.002-06:00

Nothing deep today, but I wanted to point out one reason why I'm deliciously evil.

When people complain about some headache they have, they are always looking for sympathy. If it's someone whom I don't love, like a stranger or a coworker, I mess with them like this.

I tell them that headaches don't bother me, because I have a high threshold for pain. Then sit back and watch them try to convey how enormous their pain tolerance is without sounding contradictory. You can't have it both ways, either your headache hurts and you have a normal tolerance for pain, or it doesn't because you're tough.

That's one thing about Americans that I don't get. Most of us take some kind of strange pride in certain things. Pain threshold is just one of them. Ask someone if they are any good with chopsticks. Holy crap! I have YET to find an American that will own up to sucking at chopsticks. It's like we have some desire to appear all sorts of cultured, and chopsticks are the litmus test. I can use chopsticks, and I can eat an entire meal with them. But I know my skills pale in comparison to what a 4 year old Japanese kid must have.

So, my question for this post: What other crazy things do we take pride in when maybe we shouldn't?

I love articles like this...

2008-03-19T13:46:00.002-06:00

NPR reports that the oceans are not warming. This doesn't prove or disprove anything, but at least somebody isn't just jumping on the global warming bandwagon.

This world is amazingly resilient, and we are definitely destroying it, but we should proceed based on facts rather than fears.

My guild killed Kael'thas Sunstrider!

2008-03-01T07:25:00.002-07:00

Most of you don't know how significant this is, but we killed Kael'thas Sunstrider, the last boss in Tempest Keep, It took us 3 weeks of trying, but now we have 23 raiders who are attuned to enter Mount Hyjal. Mount Hyjal and Black Temple are the only things left in WoW that our guild has yet to complete. After we beat the first boss in Hyjal, we can start on Black Temple.

We took a quick look into Hyjal, and tried the first boss. It was fun, more fun than I've had in an instance in a long time.

I'm so proud of our crew, I feel like a parent after their kid won some otherwise silly award.

More Ding!

2008-02-22T03:19:00.002-07:00

A few weeks ago, one of my friends in WoW typed this in guild chat:

Well, this week Scott made that into a strip for Ding!

Ding! is up!

2008-02-02T05:24:00.000-07:00

You can view the first strip here. The female character in that strip is the one named after my Paladin, LilGalKills. Hisuji, from the second strip, is the name of one of the other officers in our guild, and a good friend of mine. In case you didn't know, Hitsuji means "sheep" in Japanese, and a Mage in WoW can polymorph enemies into sheep, making them lose control of their character for a short time. In the comic, Hitsuji "collects" enemy players.

There are 3 comics up right now, and more on the way. The third one, with the pumpkin, actually happened to our guild a few years ago. We raided an alliance area, and at one point we hid in a pumpkin. Anyone who looked would see that we didn't fit, but it surprisingly worked out for a while. Everyone was already in complete silly mode, so the whole thing generated far more laughter than it warrented. The last panel of that comic should have several giggles coming out of the pumpkin.

Trying to 'asplain WoW to a non-player: Part 1 - Getting Gear

2008-02-01T06:25:00.000-07:00

The short answer: Nothing else can provide so much entertainment for $15 a month. Very few things in my life can provide more joy or more frustration. Of course, the lows are usually me swearing at the screen and pounding my desk. The highs often result in me silently smiling at what I/We've done. If you have tried it and didn't enjoy it, there are good odds that you've been "presented" it in the wrong way, or you have already made up your mind that you wont like it, or a combination of the two.

The long answer: We need some term like "Muggle" to describe those who don't play. Maybe Wuggle? Does that mean anything that I'm not aware of? With my luck it's some slang that only those deep in the drug underground would know, and my blog is now being "watched" by the government.

Well, for all you wuggles out there, World of Warcraft (or WoW), is the single greatest creation in the history of mankind. Sliced bread truly sucks in comparison. The wheel is only a "meh" when placed next to this technological wonder. Over 10 million people play, about 1/4 of those are in the US. It works out to be about 1 in 120 people in the US that play WoW, and that number is rising. Each of those people pay $15 per month to continue playing. That works out to be about 150 Million dollars a month that Blizzard is making off this game. I would estimate that 80% of that is pure profit.

So, how do I convey the entertainment that Warcraft brings? I think we do it a disservice by thinking of it only as a game. I'm not saying that it isn't a game, nor am I saying that it's greater than a game. It's that this software can be so much more than a game. I think a better classification would be to call it a hobby. When people learn how much I play, they think it's kinda wierd. But those same people wouldn't think anything is wrong with the model railroad guy who spends just as much time working on this train set. Think of how many hours of TV the average American watches each day. I replace TV with WoW (but I still watch about 2 or 5 TV shows each week). I consider each of my characters as a project I am working on. I spend a lot of my play time trying to get better gear for them and perfecting how I control them.

That's not saying that everyone takes it at the same level. For some people, it really IS just a game. You play for a half hour, maybe 3 times a week. That kind of player may or may not ever see level 70 (the highest level in the game currently).

Other people have multiple 70's and have them geared up rather well with good armor and weapons. For those people, each character is the end result of dozens of hours of work. For example, I put about 300 hours, spread over a few months, into getting my latest character to level 70. And once you're 70, that's just the start. Now you have to get all your gear. And by the time you have that gear, Blizzard will have announced new content or a new expansion, and that means you can work to get more gear.

The way most people get gear is from running "instances" or "PvP".

"Instances" are special zones that have some computer controlled creatures for you to fight. These creatures sometimes drop "loot". The instances also have a few difficult to fight "bosses", which have much better loot, and at least one item is guaranteed to "drop", or be looted from them. But each boss has several items that may drop, and since they drop only one or two things each time they are killed, you may not get your desired item, even after many attempts.

PvP is another way to get loot. PvP stands for Player versus Player combat, and it is when you get to fight character controlled by another person, somewhere else in the world. Every time you defeat an enemy player, you receive "honor points". Honor can be spent like currency towards very nice equipment. There are designated areas that people can go to in order to participate in PvP combat. These areas are called Battlegrounds, and have objectives that can give bonus honor and/or help your team win the match. The smallest PvP battleground allows for 10 player on each team, and the largest allows for 40 players on each team. The encounters can result in 1 on 1 fights, or 40 on 40 battles. Sometimes it's incredibly fun, especially when some punk kid "jumps" you unexpectedly, but you are able to defeat him. Few tings are more exhilarating than coming out ahead when your opponent had every advantage.

I'll write up some more points in another post. I'll probably cover the crafting or social aspects of the game next, and have another post about the coordination required for some of the fights in various instances.

Another 15 minutes of WoW fame

2008-01-19T08:48:00.000-07:00

Thanks to my guild leader, my Blood Elf Paladin's name will be imortalized in his new web comic Ding!

The other day Scott asked me if he could use LilGalKills for the name of the Blood Elf Rogue in the comic. Of course I said yes. It should be starting soon, I'll make another post at that time.

American Airlines

2008-01-05T08:31:00.000-07:00

In regard to American Airlines allowing BAE Systems to test an anti-missle defense on test airliners:

"Fort Worth-based American, a unit of AMR Corp., has said anti-missile defense is best handled by stopping terrorists from getting missiles that could shoot down commercial jets and by improving security around airports."

That could be the most ignorant statement possible with regard to this situation. Both "solutions" are naieve.

The first aspect is considering how many shoulder launched missle systems are in the hands of underpaid soldiers in former-Soviet countries. If you aproached one of those units and said you'd pay 80,000 for a single launcher, what do you think they would do? 80k and all they have to say is that one was destroyed by a forklift in a warehouse, or in a training accident. This reeks of the same ignorance that thinks guns can be kept out of the hands of criminals.

The second, airport security, is full of dumb when you consider that these launchers have at least a 5 kilometer range. That includes straight up. So if they stood 10 miles from an airport, directly under an ingress path or holding area, they just have to point up, and any plane aproaching will be vulerable. This is a system that could easily be transported in a small car, truck, or even a motorcycle if the bad guys were bold enough.

American and BAE aren't using live flights or live weapons in the tests. Right now it's just testing the system to see if it can withstand the workload of an airliner. I presume one of the next steps will include a remotely-operated empty aircraft, and live missiles.

I do take my hat off to them for allowing these tests. But I can't help think American is getting some kickback for this. The DHS awarded this contract to BAE, and there is almost surely a provision in the contract that rewards airlines for participating.

BTW, I bet I jsut tricked Annie into reading this, just from the title.

Iowa was funny!

2008-01-04T01:22:00.000-07:00

Obama beat Hillary, Hahahahahaaaa! She couldn't even win the female voters, and that was supposed to be her core. Of course Iowa is just one state, but the political types seem to think it's a big deal, so I guess it is. They say New Hampshire could really solidify Obama as the lead Democrat, and I'd love that.

Tonight, as I read about his victory, I realized time that if he wins the Democratic nomination, for the first time in over 15 years, I won't be upset if a Democrat takes the office. This doesn't mean I'm voting for Obama, I'm still undecided and it will depend on the Republican candidate. But for once I won't be voting in an attempt to keep someone else OUT of office. It will be nice for a change.

However, if Hillary gets the nomination, I will definitely be voting Republican. I honestly don't think my vote will make a difference, but I'll be damned if I'm going to do nothing about it.

If you think about that last statement, it would really be wise for the Democrats to pick Obama as their choice. Republicans who are on the fence, may vote for him. But Democrats who would be on the fence with regard to Hillary would probably not be on the fence if Obama were a choice. I could see the sway go to the left, but not to the right.

My 2007 CD

2008-01-03T03:58:00.001-07:00

We did another album for Christmas, and as usual, I didn't get the print out done that I wanted to. I was going to have Kinko's print out a little booklet that would fit in a CD jewel case, but didn't prepare enough in advance. So I'm blogging about my track selection instead.

My 2007 Tracklist:
1. Tegan And Sara - The Con
2. Tegan And Sara - Dark Come Soon
3. TNP - Myriad Harbour
4. TNP - Adventures in Solitude
5. Silversun Pickups - Checkered Floor
6. Silversun Pickups - Little Lover's So Polite
7. Silversun Pickups - Dream At Tempo 119
8. PJ harvey - When Under Ether
9. Iron & Wine - Carousel
10. Iron & Wine - Innocent Bones
11. Iron & Wine - Wolves
12. Iron & Wine - Boy With A Coin
13. The White Stripes - 300 M.P.H. Torrential Outpour Blues
14. The White Stripes - Little Cream Soda
15. Led Zeppelin - In the Evening
16. Stevie Ray Vaughan - Little Wing
17. Aerosmith - Back Back Train

Now the details:
1. Tegan And Sara - The Con
This is just an incredible song, it shouldn't need explaining. Hands down my favorite song from this album. What I love most about it is the energy of the vocals, guitars, synthesizer and the drums. I think they could have even sped it up a few BPM more.

2. Tegan And Sara - Dark Come Soon
I added this song mostly to try to put something on the album that I thought would have a broader appeal to the rest of the family. The guitar it starts out with is interestingly simple and pleasant, the kind of fun picking style that mom likes.

3. TNP - Myriad Harbour
I can't explain what it is about this song that I like so much. The vocal cadence at the begining is intruiging to me. That caught my attention almost immediately. The "question and answer" (even though no questions are asked and no answers are provided) style of having the rest of the singers join in with the lead is another aspect of what I like about it. It's really difficult to describe actually. Just listen to it and enjoy it for whatever reasons you find.

4. TNP - Adventures in Solitude
This is a happy-sad kind of song. It has a sad sound, and describes welcoming back the veteran of a war who feels guilt for surviving when their friends did not. But it does so with the tone an understanding friend would use when they welcome you back. I think it's the empathy in the song that sells it for me.

5. Silversun Pickups - Checkered Floor
I picked 3 SSP songs from Carnavas that were not regular radio songs, not that I have much of an idea what's on the radio. I was really expecting Marianne or Clayton to have a few SSP songs on their albums. Had I known they wouldn't, I'd have put on about 8 SSP songs total. Maybe it's good that I didn't know. Carnavas is an amazing album. It falls into the very exclusive category of albums that I can listen to more than a half dozen times in a row without growing tired of. I usually only change from this album because I fear that I will grow tired of it.

6. Silversun Pickups - Little Lover's So Polite
It's just got a good tempo and energy. After looking up the lyrics, it may not be the best topic though. I still love it.

7. Silversun Pickups - Dream At Tempo 119
I'm confident that Brian (the lead singer) is at least partially insane. This song is my proof. But it makes me wish that more singers were insane.

8. PJ harvey - When Under Ether
I almost didn't include any PJ Harvey songs for fear of everyone thinking I'm wierd. Well, more odd than you currently think I am. PJ Harvey is the kind of singer that you probably won't like from one song. You have to listen to a few, prefereably an entire album, over and over, to come to appreciate fully. I picked the song that, in my opinion, was the most accessible. Yes, the other ongs on White Chalk were even more odd. This at least had a pretty piano part to it.

9. Iron & Wine - Carousel
Have you heard this song. If so, then you know why I included it. You wouldn't even need to know English to appreciate how great this one it. That brings up a good point, do you have any music that you appreciate without being able to understand? The frist that comes to mind for me is Beethoven's 9th. I've looked up a translation, but that one symphony makes me want to learn German.

10. Iron & Wine - Innocent Bones
Just a nice slow smooth song. Odd lyrics. I enjoy it, like Carousel, without needing to listen to the words at all. A really cool banjo part fits in perfectly without making it "Ozark". Of course I'm a sucker for the pretty, whispy, background vocals that his wife provides.

11. Iron & Wine - Wolves
If you don't like the beat of this song, I can forgive you, but will probably never like you more than I like a passing stranger. All kidding aside, it's just fun to listen to.

12. Iron & Wine - Boy With A Coin
See the notes for track 11. I really didn't intend to have 4 Iron & Wine songs on this disc, but after picking a few, I found it difficult to remove them.

13. The White Stripes - 300 M.P.H. Torrential Outpour Blues
This is a great example of a modern blues song. It starts slow, crecendo's as it builds to it's climax, and then backs off slowly as the song ends. I almost added "A Martyr For My Love For You" from the same album, but I couldn't verify if it was singing about an inapropriate relationship or not. He was either too old to be dating the girl that is the focus of the song, or he just didn't consider himself worthy of her. Another great song, but my first impression of it was the age issue, and I didn't want to creep anyone out.

14. The White Stripes - Little Cream Soda
This is a great example of what The White Stripes mean to me: lo-fi and loud, fast and fun.

15. Led Zeppelin - In the Evening
A classic from one of Led Zeppelin's later albums "In Through The Out Door". I almost took this song off to make room for something more modern, then slapped myself for ever considering such a crime against classic rock.

16. Stevie Ray Vaughan - Little Wing
This is possibly my favorite SRV song ever. And this is easily my favorite version of his take on the Jimmy Hendrix classic (he has at least 3 versions of this song). If you listen to it, really listen, you can feel the sorrow bleed from his guitar.

17. Aerosmith - Back Back Train
A few years ago Aerosmith put out a mediocre album of electric blues. On that album was this gem (and at least one other song that made the album worth buying). This is electric blues at it's best; mean, dirty, and loud. It has an aural "momentum" to it, you feel like the song has the energy and innevitability of a train bearing down on you. Whatever the outcome of that approach, the train passes you as the song decrecendo's on it's way to another victim.

Lyrics

2007-12-29T07:42:00.000-07:00

A-Z Lyrics is a pretty cool lyric site. It's not overloaded with ads like so many other sites. Seems to be largely user edited, so it may not always be correct, but it should be good enough for anyone who's already consigned themseves to a lyrics site.

My guild seriously rules

2007-12-14T06:10:00.000-07:00

Today, on our 4th attempt, we got Al'ar to 2% before he enraged and wiped us. We have come so far so fast. We have all of Serpentshrine Cavern (SSC) clear except for Lady Vashj. And by the end of January I expect to have SSC and Tempest Keep (TK) on farm, and making shots at Mount Hyjal. I'm very proud of our raiders. Don't tell them I said that.

A while back, when we were struggling, I asked a friend in a more advanced guild, what he thought we were missing, what we could change to possibly do better. His answer was kinda funny: "You're all too nice, you need a 'bad guy' sometimes".

He was right, we have always been too accommodating, and our members were taking advantage of almost no repercussion for poor performance. In response to this, I decided to play the bad cop. I really like it actually. If the raid doesn't seem to have enough focus, I get mean and make it know they had better perform. It's an interesting little amateur psychology experiment seeing how people react to being yelled at for performance in a video game. About 90% of the time, they start performing substantially better.

If people screw up with anything other than legitimate mistakes, I rip them apart. I was once so mean that I got a guild member to quit the guild on the spot, and about a week later, the game. In my defense, he was being superbly stupid, and nobody really liked the guy. His mistake was that he was trying to save his own life, at the cost of EVERYONE else in the raid, including himself. I definitely overreacted, and in hindsight, should have handled it differently. And I've learned from that.

But our guild is now progressing rapidly, and it feels good to make significant steps forward. We should have people in full tier 5 soon, and a few pieces of tier 6 not long afterwards.

Crazy work hours

2007-12-07T05:53:00.000-07:00

I work from 1 am to 9:30 am, which are hours I love. Wednesday through Sunday, with Monday and Tuesday off. But it leads to some oddities.

It's really strange to drive to Beatos for lunch, and pass a few of those insane early morning joggers. Here my day is half over, and they are doing the 5 am complete-lack-of-common-sense-jog. Do they know it's 5 am? I feel an urge to purchase some inexpensive watches to hand out so they don't have to exercise at such stupid times. And it's winter! You should see them all bundled up, moreso than I've sometimes prepared for snowboarding.

Another wierd part of working these hours is my interaction with other humans. Of paramount importance is how this schedule affects World Of Warcraft (WoW). What I do is go to bed soon after work (ok, so I will usually do the PvP-daily and then go to bed). Then I get up at about 6 pm on raiding nights (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday), and run an instance with the guild (BTW, we are now on Vashj!) Then, after the raid, I will try to get another 1-3 hours of sleep before work. It really feels like I'm living just to work and play WoW, which is a shame. I should just be living to play WoW. I need a "sugar mama" to facilitate my need to play WoW unhindered. Or maybe find some way to play WoW professionally, and then I can have a normal wife. Of course, I don't want a "normal" wife, I want a wife that plays. We have a few couples in our guild that play together. It's seriously full of win.

Sadly, one of my days off (Tuesday morning) is on WoW weekly maintenance. That's 7 hours, in the middle of my "day", that the servers are offline. It's seriously boring. I usually play Guild Wars or organize music or something. The real problem is that servers come back online just about the time I should be starting to sleep. "But my arena points just rolled over! I can't go to bed NOW!" This leads to miserable Wednesdays at work.

But one of the nice aspects of this life is that when I get off work, everything is open. All the stores, banks, etc. So it's really easy to get chores done, I just do them after work, and I have the entire "normal" workday to get them done. It's like potentially having every day off in that regard (if I'm willing to sacrifice sleep, which I am). And even though I work on Sunday, all I have to do is go home and put on a tie, then I'm ready for church. But often I go home and fall asleep, unintentionally or not.

All in all it's a great schedule for me. The positives outweigh the negatives, and it's uncommon which makes life interesting.

Harry Potter

2007-12-02T03:22:00.001-07:00

Driving to work today, it was cold and the ground was misty, like a low fog was rolling through. I immediately knew what this meant.... DEMENTORS!
So that means I finally finished the Harry Potter series. Really good books, though I didn't read them, I listened to the entire series on my iPod.
My first experience with Harry Potter was from the first movie, and in hindsight, that was unfair to the series. After finishing each audiobook, I would watch it's associated movie, and they really don't do justice. Such is the case with most books converted to movie.
As good as the books are, there are lots of issues that I have with them. The first is with Harry. He's too emo. Although he's portrayed overall as being fiercely loyal, his faith in his friends and family falters too far and too often for my taste. James (his father) and Albus Dumbledore seem to bear the brunt of this more than most. There are points in the 6th book that Harry goes so far as to hate Dumbledore (even with all the failed occlumancy and other external influences aside). There were times I just wanted to slap the little punk. You can't have it both ways. You can't have a young man with amazing strength of character that later loses all faith in one of his dearest friends. I would have preferred if he dealt with his misgivings in a less "emo" way. This was just a way of trying to show that he's "human".
Rowling uses "incredulous" far too often, by the 5th book it was bugging me. She seems to have backed off the word a bit at the 7th book. I also didn't like how dreary most of the 7th book was. I know this was meant to be a dark time for the series, but it was too much. Maybe this was partly due to the change in narrator that I had for this last book. My greatest problem with the books was my own idiot fault. I kept reading Wikipedia articles to get more information about things that I had missed or misunderstood, and kept reading spoilers. So I highly recommend that nobody read anything until done with all the books.
My favorite characters were Luna, Ginny (3rd book and later), and most of all, Kreacher the house elf. I think to really appreciate this character, you would HAVE to listen the Jim Dale (the US audiobook) narration of the Order Of The Phoenix. There were times when I laughed out loud. His voice was PERFECT, and his mumblings were even better. If I had read the books, I would not have done Kreacher the justice that Jim Dale did him.
I can't say enough good things about Jim Dale's work on the audiobooks. He has a very good range, with few character voices "overlapping" in traits (the younger characters being the rare exception). For book 7, I listened to the British audiobook narrator, Stephen Fry, and was rather disappointed. Hermione sounded a bit like Ron, almost every adult female sounded the same, and Kreacher wasn't nearly as fun to listen to. I would go so far as to say that Jim Dale is probably responsible for 40% of my enjoyment of the series. Had I listened to the first audiobook narrated by Fry, I might not have gone on to the second audiobook.
So, if any of you are interested, I've got the first 6 books by Jim Dale, and book 7 by Stephen Fry, that I could get to you (all in digital formats). I'm going to try to get book 7 by Jim Dale as well. I really need to listen to Kreacher's part in that book done properly.