BadServo

Yes.... "Grow a Magneto!!" With a proclamation like that, how could possible not grab the diminutive fellow that beckoned to me from behind his blister-pack prison. The tiny lord of mutants was encountered during a recent excursion to Dave & Buster's, which I don't visit nearly enough consider my close proximity to it's location. That aside, an enjoyable time was had by all. While I tend to gravitage towards teh odd shooters and racers, and fume in the corner while two hot Korean gals dominated the "Pump It Up" machine, the missus was using her unnatural skill at the various ticket dispensing amusments. Considering poor Magneto was a mere 200 tickets, I doubt I could have slept that night without liberating him from his captors.

Here we see the lovely Ashley, who despite not giving a shit about my mad mutant-growing schemes first thing in the morning, does her best to feign enthusiasm.




Here we see Magneto raging in all his pint-sizd fury in front of the PS2 to give another example of scale.




If I'm to grow him large enough to help me foster my own plans of global conquest, he'll be needing to bath for some time. The guest-bath eagerly awaits, but for now, his tiny plastic tub of seclusion will suffice. My initial plans to house Megneto in the Master-bath were dashed when I discovered the Ashley didn't share my own eagerness to bath with the lead of the Brotherhood. Pfftt...women.




I'll be sure to keep everyone up to date on my progress.

Just finished Half-Blood Prince. Wow. Intense. Very intense. You really won't beleive the event near the end of the book. It another of those insane circumstances where you hit yourself repeatedly for not noteing painfully obvious signs eariler on. Another out of the park book.

Given my unexpected lever of exhaustion at this hour, I'll spare yout he typically long-winded account of the past few hours and instead suffice with a brief summary.

I jsut got back from the midnight madness sale at Barnes & Noble for the new Harry Potter book, "Half-Blood Prince." I arrived at the store at approximately 11pm and was already far behind a rather long line of people. Two hours or lines, bracelets, and loitering later, I have a copy to show for my trouble. All in all though it was rather amusing. As a natural insomniac, it's always charming to see large groups of people gathering somewhere odd late at night. Also, if would seem as though HP truly is the great equilizer. Never before have I encountered such a deverse collection of people from all ages, races, and walks of life. Truly inspiring. There were several children in costume as well as some college-age kids in replindent finery. One elderly gentlemen in his Snape get-up was a total gas. And last but not least, I feel i can say without a doubt that female HP fans are without a doubt some of the most mind-shatteringly gorgeous women on the planet. With my lovely wife's own stunning beauty there to shield me, I would myself falling madly in love with every turn of a corner. Given the scenery, it wasn't a bad way to spend a couple hours on a lazy Friday evening.

The punchline, as it were, of this story comes after I leave the bookstore and hit the local Kroger to pick up a few household items on my way home. Turns out that they ALSO began selling teh HP book at midnight (why this never occured to me I do not know). However, the total wait time then had been 30 minutes. After which, people could simply wander in, grab one, and leave. DOH!!!! On the bright side, I did get a free poster and plastic HP glasses from B&N, so that's bonus. And during my cattle-like herding through the store, I encountered enough books I want to easily account for every birthyday from now until my inevitable death. But consider this a lesson learned for the benefit of others. Hit the unlikely places if you want the merchandise without the spectacle.

Anyhow, I'm off ot dream of wizards. Cheers.

A couple of points I wanted to hit, then a disclaimer of sorts.

Firstly, I saw "War of the Worlds" about a week ago. The film is excellent. The material is handled wonderfully. The actors are magnificent. NONE of the effects look fake at all. This is a film everyone should see. What made the experience particularly enjoyable to me was who I saw i with by chance. Just before the film began, 2 elderly women sat next to me. As the film progressed I listened to their comments. These were two people who had seen the original film. They spoke of how amazing it was that a book over 100 years old, that frightened them as children, could be made real in such a way. At the end, they both clapped their approval. Nothing I can say could possibly be a better review than that.

Many of you will read reviews that talk of the films intensity. Many others will speak of how frightening the film is, and will make comparisons between it and a theoretical 9/11-style attack. But I think that misses the point. The film is frightening, but not for the reasons it should be. The magic of this movie, is that better than any other film I have ever seen, especially the more reality-based war movies is that the hopelessness, the utter terror and dispare of war is carried through so perfectly. You see the horror as people are vaporized en mass. Your heart will race as survivors kill each other just for a chance to escape the larger threat. You see people's faces fall in the knowledge that they will never see their loved ones again as they are separated by a power to advanced it doesn't even acknowledge the inhuman massacre it inflicts.

If you remove the fantastic circumstances, this is the only film that really comes close to expressing what war is really like. You will witness the torment of civilians as unknown assailants obliterate their way of life. If people could see this film, and then talk with the civilian survivors of Vietnam or the current war int he middle-east, the conflict would be over tomarrow. The unmitigated outrage at the atrocities people commit over such frivolous concerns would bring tears to the average man.

The real irony that this movie presents is this. While many American men and women will see this film as it opens here so close to the 4th of July will cheer and feel a sense of unity and victory as the alien menace falls at the end of this film. But as the movie opens elsewhere in the world to equal cheers, it will not be because the nameless (them) that threatens American is defeated, but because the unstoppable superpower that is America (represented by the aliens) was defeated.

Only the American populace could be so naive and at the same time powerful and egotistical enough to watch a film and interpret itself as the heroes, when the entire world is very likely to walk away with another image entirely. Spielberg knows this, and this knowledge will skyrocket this film to critical acclaim in other nations.

It is truly a unique spin on a great movie. I urge you to see it, and be empathetic to it's message. Ad the next time your casting your ballot, try and carry that war-torn empathy with you.

On another Independence Day related note, while on my way to Stone Mountain Park to view the laser show and fireworks display, I saw a black man dressed in one of those ridiculous "Uncle Sam" costumes to promote a Mortgage and Loan business. This sort of thing is not an uncommon sight, but struck a particular chord with me on that day. Here we have a man, who is a decendent of a person brought forceably to this country as a slave to it, made to dress as an iconic symbol of that country on it's birthday, all for the benefit of minimum wage, which is this era's equivalent of slavery. The irony of this situation being that the "Uncle Sam" garb is supposed to invoke pride in the average client making them wish to do business with he company in questions. Yet, I find nothing to be proud of in that image as I watched this man sweat on the corner waving his sign and trying futily to hold the cheap hat on in the unforgiving wind.

I also want to say that although this update may seem very anti-American in nature, that they are only ramblings. Despite what many may think, I do love my country, and I appreciate that things are as they are because of America's bloody past. But I feel that may once great nation is currently run by old fools, who will destroy what little remains to be proud of to furthers their own goals of greed, glory, and power. And just because I choose to celebrate the hardships our country faced in days past with my family, it doesn't mean I cannot turn a sympathetic eye to other countries facing greater hardships today. And all the fireworks, beer, and hot dogs won't let those people sleep without fear tonight or any other.

Happy Forth.

I forgot to mention this earlier, but KICK ASS!!! After over a year of my constant bitching, my local cable provider has finally picked up the Boomerang Channel and added it to their lineup. I'm tickled to death. This is one of the best channels ever.

For those not familiar, Boomerang is a channel developed by the same people behind Cartoon Network. It utilizes it's own Hana-Barbera licenses and licensed material from Warner Bros, etc. to make a channel exclusively of old cartoons from yester-year. That would be cool enough. But the real treat behind this channel is for insomniacs like me. In the middle of the night they play some of the most fucked-up shows you've ever seen. Classics from before the time of many, such as "Mighty Man." MM is a bachelor about town who at will can turn into a Superman type hero, but in the process becomes only a few inches high. His sidekick is a man-sized dog who's face is supposedly so ugly it could kill someone, so he wears a tiny dog-house over his head at all times. You just can't make this stuff up people.

Another gem is that early on the weekends, they occationally show some of the classic live-action stories, such as H.R. Puff'n'Stuff. These shows are screwball enough if your heavily intoxicated, but it's the lil' live-action adventure stories they show in the middle that kill me.

Anyhow, this has nothign to do with anything, but Boomerang Kicks ass!! Sometime, I'll have to relate the story about how Boomerang inadvertantly made me question my own level of perversion so much that it creeped me out.

Ok, so lots of interesting things going on in the world these days. Still had very little energy to update the journal. SO again, here's a brief selection of personal thoughts, observations, and transcriptions from other sites.

Firstly, anyone worth their salt has no doubt been following the series of humorous, and in at least 2 cases, bad decisions the Supreme Court has made this past week before going out of session for the summer. The most notably of these is the MGM vs Grokster case, which determines whether or not the developers of Peer-2-Peer software can be held held legally accountable and sued because their users commit copyright infringement. I quickly spouted a few of thoughts on the the matter at the Exploitstation.com forums:


Actually... what this judgment actually means, is that lobbyist groups and companies can sue software and hardware developers who's products can be used to commit copyright infringement if certain criteria is met. Although it's an oversimplification, the basic rule of thumb is going to be whether or not he company profits from a product that can be used to circumvent or infringe on copyrights. The only way to protect one's self would be to make damn sure that your product cannot be used for such purposes (which is impossible) or to make damn sure you've got evidence to backup your position that it's impossible to implimnet such restriction, or would be so prohibitively difficult or expensive to do so, that your company could no longer function as a result.

I think you'll soon find that "intent" has very little to do with how these cases will be handled. Now all these lawsuits that were pursued by MPAA & RIAA against software developers will go back to the lower courts unimpeded and will be fought out yet again.

The bright side, is that they groups will still have the burden of proof with regards to whether or not the companies in question are in facts aiding infringement, promoting infringement, or are not actively combating infringement.

As the article I posted above points out... the effect, at least initially, will be minor. THe only real threat is that commercial product innovation could be greatly stifled. If the makers of the next Tivo or VCR are too frightened of the possible legal implication should their product be misused, those products may not get eh funding they need and never see the light of day. Software innovation is no exception.

I must admit, I'm really quite shocked by this decision. Especially the fact that it was a unanimous decision. I thought surely the wisdom of the betamax verdict would have carried over into this era. But it simply proves yet again who's interests the legal bodies of our country are interested in protecting. It's not the consumer, it's not the developers or the innovators. It's the big money. And the dinosaur monopolies that control it's flow.

The beauty part is that these groups, who fight any change that might threaten their ancient business models are condemning themselves. Things will only escalate. All the software and inventions that have changed the world the most, weren't sponsored by the mega-corporations, weren't coded by hundreds of salaried programmers, and weren't tested by the governments of the world. No, all the great ideas and innovation come from citizens like you or me, working in their lab or basement. And you can't stop people like that, no matter what the laws are changed to protect.

If Apple wants to make a new iPod device, other companies know it. Inside trading, corporate spying, it's all common place. Companies can be stopped before the fact if someone else is threatened by their actions and has enough money to pursue a legal recourse against them. But private citizens don't even register on the radar. Bittorrent wasn't ever heard of or anticipated until it was too late. Same with Napster. With private development, you don't see that the magician is pulling something out of the hat until the rabbit is already defecating in your face. And this isn't likely to change.

Tightening the laws will only make more people side-step those laws. It's pretty simple. So every company that wants to make money from a concept, there's hundreds of enthusiasts that want to improve that concept for free. SO making P2P software is too risky for companies, who will now have to bow to the stifling restrictions of officially sanctioned downloading services. And maybe the lone programmer in his basement can't risk the legal backlash for something he creates. Doesn't matter. He's not looking to make money anyway in many cases. He simply drives down the road to the nearest unsecured access-point and uploads his creation to any of the many P2P news portals. And within days the net is abuzz with the "next big thing." And all the money, power, and lawsuits won't help the fragile entertainment industry then.

If certain organizations are so terrified about dying out do to piracy, I have a few simple suggestions:

1) Don't force me to watch a fucking 3 minute anti-piracy campaign before the feature film I've ALREADY PAID to see when I visit the cinema.

2) Stop making the same terrible SHIT over and over again. Seriously, if I see one more "black guy in the uptight white society" or "white guy in the hood" movie, I'll take my own goddamn life. And do we really NEED a "Bewitched" movie? WTF!?

3) Stop wasting all that precious money fighting something you cannot illuminate. Instead use the funds and time wasted on court proceedings to make better products. Making superior products will get people to buy those products. I don't know about anyone else, but I've spent a hell of a lot more money on old movies from the 80s and 90s than new releases in the past few years. Same with music. Why? Because right now, you can walk into a music store and blindly take 3 CDs from the "new Releases" section of the store and when you listen to them, it's about the equivelent of listening to every mainstream release this year. We only need 1 Mandy Moore, Jessica/Ashley Simpson, Kelly Clarkson, Brittney, Christina. It's all the same shit. Kill the others to retain precious oxygen for us and promoting cash for worthwhile bands who are now likely to lose the only form of promotion they can afford, P2P networks.

4) Create a viable option to illegal services. Consider this scenario.... I come home from work, tired. And I'm angry because since the boss needed me to stay late, I've missed my favorite show. Now I can wait till it comes on again in a month. I don't think so. I can wait for the DVD in several months. Nope. I can download an officially sanctioned digital copy from the studio in high-quality for a modest sum. What's that? There is no such service? Well then FUCK IT! I'll just download it illegally for free and watch the goddamn thing I could have watched for free if I had been here 30 minutes earlier.

I could go on and on. But the point is, the American public is largely a creature of desire, convenience, and instant gratification. You can only get money from people who have it. The completely broke collage student ain't fucking giving you the moeny they don't have, so you jsut as well stop leaning on them, and hpe that the stuff they are downloading illegally is good enough that they buy it when they can afford it. And those that have money, will gladly pay a reasonable price to be able to instantly download what they want, when they want it. And by the way, 99cents a track isn't reasonable. Bite me. That's not really any better than buying a retail copy of the CD. And you can lament all you want about the cost of development and promotion, etc. If the artist is worth a damn, they don't' need the help, and I came to the site willingly, so you didn't have to sell me on anything, and you don't even have to pay for the plastic and paper to put the fucking disc in. Pass those savings to the customer, and he'll buy more music. Keep bleeding them out, and eventually the blood runs dry.

Just my 2 cents.


If your interested int he opinions of others on this subject, the original thread is here.

One of the other amusing laws that was changed this week are those regarding imminent domain. These changes basically make is infinitely easier for local government to seize your property (regardless of whether or not you wish to sell) for their own uses, providing it will benefit the community. Given the relatively loose nature of what will "benefit the community" the great "Land-Grab of '05" has already begun. Some people really are bastards. Browse a few news sites, odds are you'll read about some perfectly upstanding citizens being forcibly uprooted so their town can build new parking lot or some such.

Another interesting article is the one discussed here. This is another one of those aimless laws. Although it's point (theoretically) is to protect children from being used in pornographic material, the simple fact is that this law will not effect child-pornography at all. It will however bring the perfectly legitimate Internet-porn industry to it's knees. Given the "we get some from everywhere" nature of many on-line pron sites, much of the material the government now wants on record simply doesn't exist for a large portion of the content these sites depend on for revenues and success. Forcing these laws will cause a drastic loss in (sometimes irrecoverable) content. Also, the independent amateurs and cam-whore types will be forced to make their private information public. I'm sure the best way to protect children is to force the single mother who runs a small fetish website to help make ends meet publish her home address for the benefit of stalkers. But then, I suppose I'm not nearly as intelligent as the law-making bodies. ^_^ The thing that everyone tends to overlook, is that child pornographers don't' really run alot of websites. Those files and hard-copies are privately traded in back rooms and private gathering. Even assuming there is this huge, publicaly accessible web-archive of child porn, do you really think that sort of person is gonna be spooked by this law? I mean really?

In an eerie twist, both Paul Winchell & John Fiedler passed on this week. These great men were best known as the voices of Tigger and Piglet respectively. What's less commonly known is the Paul was one of the world's greatest ventriloquists and quite an inventor. He created the first artificial heart in fact. He also voiced many of the classic Hanna-Barbera characters such as Dick Dastardly and Gargamel.

John Fiedler was also a notable stage and screen actor, and was featured in a minor part in one of my all-time favorite movies, "Midnight Madness." The former reached the age of 82, and the latter 80. This news also comes not long after the death of Henry Corden, who was the voice of Fred Flintstone. I certainly will mis them, as it's these thankless men behind the scenes that breathed life into my childhood, and the childhoods of most good caring people I know.




Another interesting and largely overlooked news story of late was this one. I'll spare you my commentary, since the article itself is pretty self-explanatory. But suffice to say that having been a fan of Jules Verne's work for some time, I found this discovery particularly captivating.

Anyone who's known me for any length of time will tell you that my favorite "heroes" are the vigilantes. Darkman, Batman, Punisher, Ghost Rider, and the like always fire up my imagination, and flare my over-developed sense of justice. This is why it does my heart good to report that "Batman Begins" is a rousing success. It's good. It's beyond good!! It's easily the finest comic-based film of all time. I've no doubt sure you'll read huge reviews both expounding why the movie kicks ass, or going on in great detail why it sucks, so I'll spare you. But know that I'm both a picky film-goer and a Batman fan, and I cannot find a singular thing to bitch about. Not one single thing. I mean, there's always the slight plot points that require a degree of disbelief suspension, but when your watching a film about a crime-fighting millionaire who dresses like a bat, that you should be taking that into account.

I also recent watched the live action film based on the anime/manga "Cutie Honey." I didn't hold much hope for it, but was quite surprised at how much I enjoyed it. It's a very goofy, slap-stick type film that does reasonable justice to the source material. If I had to describe it, I'd call it kinda like a slightly perverted Power Rangers that's funny by intent and not as a result of mega-suckage. Some of the imagery is priceless. Also, this one scene amused me so much that I converted it to be used as my avatar on sites that will allow such a large file. This namely excludes me from using it on all board that I don't either control myself or know the people who control it. But it's fun nonetheless. The avatar in question is below.



As you can see, it's quite 'splodey.

And lastly, I want to voice this odd opinion that occurred to me during a recent excursion to the mall. I was sitting there, enjoying a delightful cup o' pretzel pieces when a began to shift in my seat uncomfortably and a general sense of unease came over me. I look up, and see a Foot Locker employee walking by. I eye him nervously as he passes and when he's out of sight, the gloom lifts and everything is ok. Now, I was at a a loss to explain my reaction to this man. Assuming that he was not, in fact, a highlander, I had no reason to freak out. After giving ti some thought, I came to the conclusion that it's the referee-style uniform they are forced to wear. It's appearance alone exudes a certain degree or authority, which generally makes me uncomfortable. It's just like when a cop passes by you get all tense even though you're doing nothing wrong.

It is by this logic, that I strongly advice the public to avoid shopping at foot locker, lest you be unintentionally coerced into making a hasty buying decision by the imposing presence of their uniform-clad employees.

Well, that's enough rambling for now.... instead, I leave you with "MIGHTY DANCING ROBOT ACTION..."

Well, I've been remiss in my update frequency for too long again. Nothing of particular interest to say, but a few random musings and interesting tidbits to mention.

Firstly, during a recent excursion to the nearest college town to go bar-hopping and generally raise by "drunk-ass" attribute by at least +10, I stayed in a Travelodge Hotel. Although the room and in general the stay was quite enjoyable, there was one item of such distressing content, I had to take it with me. Submitted for your approval, Travelodge Bear Basics Body Soap:





Furries are everywhere. Honestly. In their defense, the sleep-looking chap on the soap is the Travelodge mascot. He can't be a bad guy, as the hotel's office featured many pictures showing him rubbing elbows with various NASCAR personailities. And we all know NASCAR drivers can't sin against man. ^_^ But to say the least, I find the image to be not only disturbing, but mildly suggestive. The blurb on the back of the packaging only serves to reinforce this impressions. It reads as follows....

"My Bear Basics Body Soap contains only the finest ingredients like essences of milk and honey to make you positively irresistable." Yet despite the reassurances of my narcaleptic benifactor, after using this soap, I didn't get hit on any more than usual, which is to say not at all. :( Perhaps if I were furrier. Ah to dream.

Although the manner in which fate fiddles with me is hardly limited to esoteric promises on freebie soaps. One particularly ironic turn presented itself this week. I'm a bit overweight. I don't feel I'm in danger of having Richard Simmons force me to cry or anything, but a few pounds fromt he ol' gullut probably wouldn't hurt my health. As a result, I've been hitting the exercise room at the apartment complex whenever possible, and trying to reduce my calorie in take as much as my sense of taste will allow. I've essentially illiminated frying anything, and have been upping the protien and cutting back on the carbs. Anyone that knows me will tell you that 98% of my diet is Dr. Pepper. However, due tot eh rediculously high calroie count of traditional sodas, I've been seeking an alternative. Diet sodas are right out. I simply cannot stomach that dreadful stuff. And all things made with Splenda taste akin to paving tar. I found an eventual comprimise in teh form of "Coke C2." To be only 45 calories per serving, it's surprisingly flavorful and doesn't have the dreadful aftertaste that msot lo-cal drinks suffer from.

So after having been on my new health kick for awhile, the pediatrician begins expressing concern over my daughters development. Apparently, she's growing fine, and is still in the average zone for hieght, but hasn't been gaining weight quickly enough. I personally shrugged this off, as I'm not that biggest guy around, and her mother is positively pocket-sized. So the prospect of having a slightly demure child was not only not surprising, but entirely expected. Despite that, we were inscructed to consult a nutritionist.

The nutritionist seemed to agree with me for the most part, since according to Emily's eating habits, she's gettign enough intake. But in the interest of playing it safe, suggested some modifications. Apparently my new goal is to simply up the amount of calories int eh food she already eats. This is all well and fine, except that the kid generally eats what I eat during meal times that she doesn't receive the Pediasure. So despite my best efforts to the contrary, I basically was ordered by a doctor to stock my larders with butter (REAL butter), cheeses, rich sauces, fatty pastries, heavy syrups, hi-cal TV dinners, milk-shakes, and all the other things that I crave but intentionally try to limit. It takes alot of discipmine to reach for the lo-fat chips or Triscuits when theres a cheese danish sitting right there. But aside from frying potatoes during a couple meals for her benefit, I've been holding the fort with relative ease.

In the realm of entertainment, I saw "Around the World in 80 Days" last night. It was alot better than I expected. Alot of great cameos. I won't bore you with details, but if you accept the movie for what it is (family-friendly slapstick with some nice fight choreography) then you'll enjoy it. Jackie Chan fans of course, will have already seen it.

Also, I've been following the carrer of an interesting "new" artist from Japan. By sheer chance a bit ago, I downloaded a music video by a performer called "Tommy February6." It was a catchy synth-pop track with a heavy retro feel to it. Definately hearkened back to the early self-titled Madonna album. The gal in question had that intensely dokry but cute and pseudo-helpless look that I am absolutely powerless against. I found myself very taken with this performer and eager obtained every video and peice of recording I could find. To my surprise I enjoyed most of it. But there was always this nagging feeling that I'd seen this girl before, and simply couldn't trace where.

During my search I encountered references to the name "Tommy Heavenly6." Thinking this to be waaay to strong of a similarity to be a coinceidence, even by JPOP standards, I checked out a video bearing this newly discovered moniker. This video is a ncie grunge-rock presentation, performed by chic sexxy gal in heavy eye-liner and a short skirt. Tho exuding a completely different vibe, this was definately the same Tommy I'd grown to love. The plot thickens.

By this point, my interest is beyond peaked. I've always held a special place in my heart for the rockers who use stage personas to communicate differnt messages. Chief among them of course being David Bowie, and to a lesser extent, avant gard rockers like Alice Cooper and Marilyn Manson. After a spot of google searching I had peiced together the loose threads. It begins with a JPOP band called the Brilliant Green, featuring young Tomoko Kawase on vocals. TBG hit the hight of their success some 6 years ago with a series of rock-ballads and catchy pop numbers of love lost. Eventually the buzz died down and teh band went on an indefinate hiatis.

During this time, Tomoko began working on a then untitled solo project. The result was the first single release from Tommy February6. At the time, the single was all that was intended to be produced. But the quirky lyrics featuring a cute girl singing about fantasies of love, and the geeky-but-lovable persona Tomoko created to match it were a huge hit in Japan. More singles followed, and eventually a full album was produced. At this point, February6 has released two full-length albums to great acclaim. However, sometime later, Tomoko began to feel her harder-edged rock-roots again and plunged forward with a tougher set of tracks, and created the Heavenly6 personality to compliment it.

Despite the great successes of her independent releases, The Brilliant Green has once again resumed making music. One particularly fun tidbit, are the videos for February6's "Love is Forever" and Heavenly6's "Wait Till I can Dream." The two videos are designed in a manner that they form a certain continuity. At the beginning of the former, we see F6 waking up and then venturing into here dance number. At the end of the video she takes a swig from her flask and passes out. At the beginning of the most recent Heavenly6 vid, we see the end of the F6 video and she awakens from another stupor and begins watching her counterpart perform in the next room through a hole in the wall. For the benefit of the non-JPOP fans and those fans who may not be familair with the work in question, I'm providing 3 music videos that reflect the different styles. Click on each of the below pics to view the respective videos.



I should no doubt have some other crap I was planning on rambling about, but after converting the above vids, I find it eludes me.

This is another update where I've been dragging far too much ass. So I'll be dropping a number of completely unrelated topics on you.

Firstly, I urge you to head to your local toy store and pick up a "Fistful of Power!!" I did, and you'll never know how happy I am about it.






Fistfuls of Power aside, things have been pretty mellow. We went to the Renaissance Festival during it's opening weekend and a fine time was had by all. The only issue with such an outing, besides the fact that I had suffered some insane sub burnt eh day before, was trying to keep a bevy of creepy, overweight men dressed in resplendent finery from trampling my daughter as they trounced across the landscape like so many leviathans. My wife, though a swell gal, often seem somewhat oblivious to the dangers a toddler faces in most social situations. So I consider myself to be the "Defender Against Death." ^_^ As per usual at such a gathering, I found myself extremely tempted by various arts and crafts. I managed to tear myself away from a staff that whispered to my soul and spoke things best left in the pages of Harlequin novels. I did submit to a groovy little stone skull that I found to be too cheap to pass up. He now joins the tiny legion of figures that adorn my 4 monitors. Having attempted to swear off my somewhat expensive an pointless figure collecting hobby, by lil' monitor buddies are the only guilty pleasure I'll allow myself in this capacity. Although I'm afraid Tiny Hellboy is pissed about this newcomer to his domain.

Saw the film "National Treasure." I was rather surprised how much I enjoyed it. I posted a few quick comments on the Exploitstation.com forum which I'll paste in here:

I also saw "National Treasure" last night. I don't know how much anyone outside the confines of the US would enjoy it, since it's heavily reliant on US historical knowledge for a lot of it's punch. But nevertheless it was a great movie. It didn't do too terribly well int eh box-office, but it definitely keeps you interested. I would definitely liken it to "Indiana Jones: And the Last Crusade." And my wife drew several parallels to the books of Dan Brown, specifically "The DaVinci Code."

Highly recommended for those of you stateside.

Also checked out "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." Having been a rabid fan of the books for many years, I had been watching the film project with mild apprehension. The books are considered to be "unfilmable" by many, and with good reason. Adams' irreverent comic sensibilities and internalized dialog are difficult to translate. However, I was pleased to find the film was quite a good production. Taken in and of itself, I don't' see how people could be too upset with this reinterpretation. I also made some comments regarding this film in the ES forums:

I saw Hitchhiker's Guide a couple days back. From others I've talked to about it, the general consensus is that persons who read the books have opinions varying from "it sucks" to "it was pretty decent."

Personally, having been a huge fan of the books for ages, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. I mean, you've obviously got to cut some material when converting such a substantial book to film format, but all in all, the key lines held together very well. The casting worked much better on the screen that I had anticipated. Even Zooey did ok, as Trillian, even though it was definately a different sort of Trillian than reader will be familiar with. The fact that she seems hotter in this film than I've ever seen her previously also helps. ^_^

Even the changes and script enhancements that the fanboys are mostly bitching about, are additions that Douglas Adams himself made. The was no real "studio-pressure" involved. If you want a silly/witty set of laughs for 2 hours, and have ever wanted to see DA's vision with the technology that could present it, you'll enjoy the movie. If your expecting a line by line translation of the books, you will be sourly disappointed.

Also, the price of admission alone is worth seeing the fantastic characterization of Zaphod Beeblebrox. I always thought he was a weaker character, motivation-wise. They definitely take him through a whole new door this time.

On that note.... support your local candidates.

Had an opportunity to check out the latest special exhibit at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History. The exhibit was about rare and exotic frog species. There were over 100 live drogs from around the world on display, and I'm not exaggerating when I say i was quite shocked at the diversity within the species. Everything from coloration o breeding styles, and adaptation are all over the board. Of particular note was a breed of frog no bigger than your toenail that secretes a poison so potent that touching it can kill you. Personally it was not as thrilling as the Genetics exhibit, but was enjoyable nonetheless. I also checked out the IMAX film "Bugs!," which was far better than I expected. It features the most amazing micro-photography I've ever witnessed. It's also narrated by Judi Dench, which should thrill Brit-com and James Bond fans alike.

My mother spent a couple days with us which was great. I hadn't personally seen her in awhile, and was glad to have her spend some time with Emily. Em sees far more time with Ashley's parents, and I don't want my mother to be the "grandmother that time forgot." Due to an unforeseen money-crunch, we didn't get to do as much as I would have liked, but had fun nonetheless. We checked out a few movies and did a bit of shopping. During the shopping expedition, I saw the following at a local thrift shop:





I know some rabid sci-fi and classic TV fans that would kill to get those three boxed sets. And the tapes were going for about a buck each. The pic is lo-res, since I snapped it with my camera-phone, but they had full sets of "Lost in Space," "Hogan's Heroes," and "V."

With mom hanging out for a few days, me and Ashley took a break and went out. Nothing too thrilling, but had a fine time. I want to take this opportunity to extend my thanks to Patrick for being the only comrade of mine with the fucking balls to come out on a school night and have a beer with me. You ROCK!

I also find it interesting that people seem to think I deserve a congressional medal for taking eh 6-hour drive to get mom and another to return her to her natural habitat. Frankly, I think city life has made these people soft. A good drive is quite enjoyable, especially at night. I find I get some of my best thinking done during a long, uninterrupted drive through the twilight. Since it's predominantly a straight shot down a couple highways, most of my higher brain functions shut down, allowing all that deliciously esoteric thought to slip through. It's also cool to pass through familiar streets once again, and have a nostalgic reflection on how things have changed.

Been listening to some new music lately. In particular, I've been enjoying the K-OS albums "Joyful Rebellion" and "Exit." The new "DJ Z-Trip" album is also great. There's a track on there titled "Breakfast Club," which is a hysterically funny view of the Saturday Morning cartoon sessions of years past. I highly recommend anyone with a retro outlook to give it a listen.

The new Natalie Imbruglia album is not bad, despite not really grabbing me in the way her last release did. The first single, "Shiver," is FUCKING GREAT, however. The video for it leaves a lot to be desired though, being primarily a poorly executed "Bourne Supremacy" concept piece. I've also been listening to Save Ferris a lot lately. I had forgotten how much I enjoy them. The fact that the lead vocalist is a stone-cold fox doesn't hurt either. How she never became the next Gwen Steffani is a mystery to me.

The songs that have been topping my play list lately in no particular order are:

-Amiel - Another Fucking Love Song
-TISM - Five Yards
-Gorillaz - Feel Good Inc
-Family Guy (Live in Vegas) - TV Medley
-Z-Trip - Walking Dead
-Autour de Lucie - Noyes dans la masse
-Lene Marlin - Sorry
-Plumb - Here with Me
-Gaskets - Earthquake
-Missy Higgins - Ten Days
-Cardigans - Erase & Rewind
-Rachel Stevens - Negotiate with Love

I've also resumed playing "World of Warcraft." Haven't really made much progress since I'm spreading what little time I ahev available between 3 characters on 3 seperate servers. But I find it's still enjoyable. Odds are I'll play another month or two, and then start playing "City of Heroes" again with Ashley.

On a completely unrelated note. Whenever your feeling glum, be grateful that you aren't this guy.

If you live in the Atlanta area, your no doubt familiar with the radio station 99X. They currently have a program for "freeloaders" which allows you to purchase $50 gift certificate to local resteraunts for only $30. It's a pretty good deal, and we've been throroughly takign advantage of it. They choose a new place every week.

Season 3 of "Penn & Teller's: Bullshit!" has begun airing. If you haven't been watchign follow these simple steps:

1) Kick your own ass.
2) Go rent seasons 1 & 2
3) Watch them, love them.
4) Tune in to Showtime to seen new eps.

I've also found myself enjoying the FOX hit "House" alot more than I would have anticipated. It's possible jsut my highly developed love of codgy old asshole characters, but it's good stuff reguardless. The new sketch comedy "Hollow Men" on Comdey Central is also surprising me. I think of it as a someone more reserved version fo "Kids in the Hall." Less off-the-wall and more profane.

Kung Fu Hustle is pretty bad ass, but hardly what your expecting. I think I was about half way through the film before the actual plot became apparent. Pretty awesome visuals near the finale though.

The official japanese release date for Advent Children has been announced. DVDs should hit the asian streets on September 14th. I dont' mind tellign yout he aniticipation is killing me. For those not in the know, AC is the CG movie sequel to the hit PSX game, "Final Fantasy VII." I highly recommened that the uninitiated check out the following site for pics, info, and trailers: http://www.adventchildren.net/

Guess that's about it.

Why is it that whenever I go to the supermarket, no matter how few items I purchase, I walk away with a 2-foot long receipt? This is jsut getting ridiculous. I mean, I'm all for a detailed record if someone wants it, but the extras are getting otu of hand. I don't need the "thank you for shopping with us" message. I don't need the manager's life story. I don't need the fully mailing address and financial records of the store. And if everyoen woudl do away with this "VIP card" bullshit, then I coudl do away with the "you saved X dollars."

And the dumb-ass printed coupons are worse. I'm all for savings, but does anyone actually use these. I mean, there's never a conveinient place to put them when they hand them to you. And they are always for products that your incredibly unlikely to buy.

It's quite maddening. Not quite as much so as the hispanic man who is incapable of understanding what an "ID" is and why he needs one to be 8 cases of beer. Or the one decrepit white chick that always precedes me and has to dobule check that the machien gave her an advertised special.

I don't really consider myself to be a hardcore gamer. In fact, I'd think of myself as a casual gamer at best. But I love to tinker with everything, and since obtaining a PS2, I've been trying out new games at great length. The most recent of which is "The Rumble Fish." RF is a standard 2D fighter from Sammy (makers of the Guilty Gear series) and Dimps (Dragon Ball Z: budokai). While some aspects of the game are lackluster, it stands out a a fighting game designed for fighting game enthusiasts. The fighting system is unmatched. In addition to the familiar blocks, and strong/light punches/kicks, you also have advanced combo attacks that can be initiated by pressing different buttons simultaneously to launch into a slo-mo attack. The game features a wide variety of meaters that build or deplete with successful blocks, attacks, and special moves. The condition of these bars determines your character's ability to not only perform devistating attacks, but to avoid them as well. When the length of time you hold a button before release changes the move from 1 hit to multiple hits, or allows you to more accurately time teh execution of a strike.

On teh surface, more casual gamers will be turned off by the generic characters and backgrounds, but the animation is gorgeous. It's not over-pixelated and features a truly innovation manner of layering the characters and backgrounds (ala paralax scrolling) to give real depth to motions and manuvers. Now what does that mean to the casual gamer like me? You guessed it.... more outrageous tit-jiggling.....





I'm not condoning or condeming that... I jsut liek to see that some thign never change. I still have fond memories of the "jiggly-tit" options in Dead or Alive for PSX. Anyhow, it's not super likely that this game will see a stateside release. but if your a fan of solid 2D fighters with a little extra spin on em, I recommend it as a sound import option.

Well it's been ages since my last post. It seems as though I have a new idea about something to say everyday, but can't ever summon the energy and the time similtaneously. So, instead of trying to "catch up" on my entries, I'm going to make one long free-form entry. I'll just let anything I can remember or that occurs to me roll out of my head and into the keyboard. Bear with me.

Firstly, it's been one hell of a week. Nothing dreadful has happened, but it's been one of those periods when a million things just creep up on you at once. I have a nasty tendency to take on too-many side projects and place too high a priority on the desires of others. This earns me alot of things, respect, friendship, and even cash. But sometimes I have to force myself to tell everyone else to fuck off for my own sanity. I waited too long to do that this week, and I think my current state of physical condition is directly resultant from that. I'm definately "under-the-weather."

We recently bought a new couch. I never cease to be amazed at how the larger a company is, the more ineffectual it is at performing it's tasks. We must have gone to every large, national furniture chain there is looking for a couch and finding nothing but utter crap, or somehwat decent at a utterly crappy price. In the end, we popped into a locally run joint that not only had a gorgeous peice, but a nice round price and was willing to deliver it and haul off the old monstrosity.

As a man, I grow quite attached to couches. But I have to admit that this new one far outclasses the meager "goodwill" style of couch I've been using for the past few years. Tried and true tho my former ass-assisters were, this one is like a soothing mistress. You just melt into the fucking thing. I'm lovin'n it.

Went to the MC Chris show at the 40-Watt in Athens with some comrades. All in all, a fine time. I made what comments I could think to make in the MC Chris forums. Below is a reproduction of that post:

The Athens show did rock nonstop. I lived in Athens for quite awhile, and the downtown scene has changed somewhat. But I was still impressed. The Gaskets "really" shocked me with their special brand of over-excitable synth-pop. The closest thing I could call it would be happy new-wave after several espressos. The only disappointment with the opening act was that the CD they were selling at the show ("Big Fun") sounded nothing like the material they played that night. In fact, I don't think I recognized a single song as I listened to it twice on the way back to Norcross.

This was my first MC show, and I didn't know what to expect. BOY! Was I happy. MC popped on stage in full effect and kept the crowd jumping. His witty antics between songs even kept my friend Patrick in stitches despite not seeming to be a huge MC fan. The playlist for the evening was great!! Although I would have liked to hear some extended versions of some tracks, as songs like "Evergreen" come off as very short during live play. I also wouldn't have minded hearing "Boy Don't Cry," but Hijack live was beyond measure and had the whole front 4 rows jumping.

John's reputation for near robotic concentration and inaction is well deserved however. I often worried that he was having maligned erotic fantasies about each member of the audience one at the time behind his peircing stare. Although he did seem a bit surprised that someone knew who he was without any indicators when I shouted out "John Rocks" when he was setting up before the show.

The 40 Watt staff, who generally never seemed to give a crap about anything in the past, were particulaly friendly and quick to service that night. I never had to wait on a drink, and due to this, I prolly drank way too much. For those who've never been to this venue though, it's great for smaller shows, becasue it's a chill atmosphere, with plenty of bathrooms, and couches/tables, etc.

The crowd was great, although I worried that about 30% were people dragged out by significant others and did more head-bobbing than rapping along. I was quite taken however by the high volume of ravishing young ladies who could shout out a verse of "stop time" without breaking a sweat. But then high-volumes of hotties and Athens tend to go hand in hand.

MC was great after the show. Alot of the "fake" fans headed out after his completely imprompu (sarcasm) encore. So the lines for meets and greets weren't too long. I was able to get my ENC 1.0 insert signed and speak to the man of magic himself. He brought me up to speed on the possibility of the animated music video happening next year as well as the next DC Flag release. Due to my love afair with bourbon that night I completely screwed up and called the label "Red Flag." But after a moment of confusion, MC corrected me. You ever been so embarressed by saying something dumb that you wanted a white rapper to embed his boot in your nutz in retibution?

He also must have the mind of a steel trap. Even after talking a great length to a hefty line of fans behind me, he still greeted me by name later on as I was passing by to leave. That's awesome and the kind of thing that makes one a fan for life.

I was really angry that I forgot my nice digital camera, but I snapped a few shots with my cell phone, that'll have to do. Fortunately I met alot of great fans while I was there, and there seemed to be no shortage of great shots being taken. Although I did capture a pic of John, working his silent voodoo on the crowd. ^_^








I also want to point out that women are evil. And it seems as though the lion's share of evil befalls the nicest of guys. Two of my close comrades in arms have fallen victim to what I have come to refer to as the "throat-needle." The "throat-needle" is when a seemingly nice woman completely has you head over heels and then becomes a vengeful bitch at the drop of a hat. We've all been there at some point. But the the specific circumstances surrounding the downfall of both of my friend's relationships is downright spooky in how similar they are (tragic psuedo break-ups on birthdays, etc). To protect the innocent, we'll call these two the "Mad Hatter" and the "March Hare" respectively.

Now I have no doubt whatsoever that the March Hare is infinately better off in all possible ways with his personal succubus gone. Not only will he fair better, but those of us who are fond of his company will have a much easier time of it without her constant babbling, anal-retentiveness, and general ability to drive sane people to thoughts of murder. He unfortunately is like myself, in that we are inexplicably drawn to women who share our interests but are very different types of people from us. I've grown to find that relationships with people who have the same tastes as you are fun, but can grow sour and generally last less time than those relationships with women you may have nothing in common with other than a general sense of self. He will probably continue with a long line of short lived relationships that never quite work. But he'll be none the worse for wear. He's one of the few artist types that can shrug things off with shocking speed and efficiency.

The Mad Hatter on the other hand I have not known long enough to make any definative assesment on. However, I do have my fears. He's a helluva nice guy. He quite reminds me of myself not too many years ago. He strikes me as the sort of person that will give and give, and will also take alot of shit before breaking. I would venture to guess that he's been shit on quite a few times in the past. And yet he's maintained his outlook on the subject of love. That's something I find very admirable, even if my current outlook would disreguard such thoughts as naive.

I expect he'll find himself in several relationships that start wonderfully, due in no small part to the woman being taken aback by his honest, giving, and hollywood-worthy sense of romance. But those same qualities they read as strengths in the beginning will inevitably be read as weaknesses or points of boredom, and he'll find his self broken-hearted again and again. Hopefully, he'll not let it make him bitter. However, the fact that he's a goddamn genious gives me some degree of hope. He's one of those guys that you almost don't want to be attached to anyone, so that he can be out in the world unbound by anyone, working his magic on things. As nice as my own marriage has been, I often think about the sheer amount of things I could be accomplishing if my time was completely unfettered by the opposite sex, and his talent for the tech far exeeds my own.

Above all else, I'm afraid he'll get so fed up with the "game" of love that he'll end up settling for someone that doesn't deserve him or doesn't truly make him happy, all for the sake of not being alone. I stongly feel that is what kept the March Hare in his doomed relationship for so long.

Now... I ask you this. What the fuck happened to Sesame Street!? They are ruining my show, people. First off, what the fuck happened to Forgetful Jones. I haven't seen him on the show in years. Likewise with Guy-Smiley. Also, the Count is highly underused in the more recent episodes. They deffinately need to bring back some of the more classic animations, and show a bit mroe pride in the new ones that are forged. In particular, I'd like to see the animations of the pinball table that taught counting make a return.

One thing specifically that bothers me alot is Elmo's untouchable status. The simple fact is that poeple get fucked with on Sesame Street. It's a land of humility and always has been. Grover is constantly yelled at by customers at his waiter gig, and made a fool of by his scout troop. In the old days, Oscar would fuck with Telley's head relentlessly, usually by trying to convince the poor bastard than he could fly or some other such nonsense. The list goes on and on.... and yet, Elmo never has anyone screw with him. Not only is he not being harrassed by other Muppets, but he's become completely isolated from the rest of the cast. Rare is it that the character is used in the context of the actual show. Instead there's a mini "Elmo Show" segment in the middle of the Sesame Street show. I'll spare you my irritations with that bit of garbage.

In my last post, I made mention of the untimely death of Hunter Thompson. My friend "Pop'n Fresh" directed me to this glorious peice of graffiti that I feel is a fine tribute. Check it out here.

I suppose I should also mention that both of my websites, BadServo.com and ExploitStation.com are both chugging along. I don't think I've mentioned ES before, but it's a Playstation 2 Modding and Exploiting website. Alot of nifty things you can do with that machine I was not aware of. Before anyone gets any ideas, I should point out that I didn't create the site, but have merely assumed one of the administrator positions thanks to a power-struggle gone awry behind the scenes. I now act as a sort of curator for the site, creating new sections, updating the content, posting news, runnig backups, and helping in the forums. It's a fine resource, and if your a PS2 user, you'd be remiss not to pop over and at least check out the FAQ to get an idea of the sort of mischief one can get up to. Something nice about being able to play 50+ games without so much as a single disc. ^_^

My affiliation with Exploit Station has been both a blessing and a curse. It eats up alot of time, due to my affore-mentinoed inability to turn people down when my help is requested. However, I've made alot of great friends and learned alot of stuff. Not the least of which is that Welsh is a nice accent for a women, and Australian dudes sound funnier live than on TV. ^_^ Also, teenagers are irritating fuckers in every country.

Speaking to foreigners on a regular basis also provides me with a unique outlook on my own country. You wouldn't beleive the pearls of wisdom dropped my my comrade RichardM. Really gives a stark contrast to the crap we as a nation put up with from our own government. And for those of you who are Republicans, I can assure you that most of em hate us as much as you've heard.

Also went to see Sin City. I've written a mini-review of it too for the Shaw-Island forums. Stop by and give the comic a try. This guys is one of my favorites. Below is a transcript of that post:

Sweet Jesus.... went to check out an evening show of this and was blown away. You've no doubt read a millions reviews for this, with millions more to come since it's the #1 Box Office flick right now. I haven't posted my LiveJournal review, so I'll spare you.

Suffice to say this thing looks incredible!!! The digital film techniques that were used to such ill-effect in "Sky Captain" redeem themselves as viable options in "Sin City." The one piece of advice I offer you is to go see it alone or with buddies. This is undoubtedly a film made by and for men, despite heavy female empowerment messages in the mix. I don't care how cool you think your significant other is, at some point she'll be thinking "oh my GOD!!" Meanwhile you'll be revelling in every gorgeous, carnal pleasure offered by Miller's film-noir vision of justice in a world gone wrong. Things ineveitably get so over-the-top gratuitously violent and decadent, you can't help but feel guilty for enjoying it so much.

If you thought Kill-Bill was something.... this things makes KB look like a Bearnstein Bears Christmas special.

Well I'm gonna call it quits there for now. Feeling shitty. Personally I blame my decision to cut down on caffine. ^_^

Most of you have no doubt heard by now, of the unfortunate circumstances surrounding the death of Hunter S. Thompson.  He was a great journalist, and an inspiration to alot of people.  I could no doubt try to find something witty, unique or heartfelt to say about this man, who touched so many, but instead I'll post this:

--------------------------------


 I worked at a corrupt non-profit agency with an abusive red-cheeked boss I called Rabbit Face. Our mission was to feed the poor, but mostly we wrote letters to politicians and tried to shake the dollar tree.

“You don’t put enough Catholic guilt into your letters,” said Rabbit Face.

I’d nod my head and sneak off to the bathroom with a Hunter S. Thompson paperback.

And in the shithouse—I learned more about politics and more about being human that I ever did listening to old R.F. I learned more, hiding, than I would living above ground with the fear and loathing of pigs pretending to be people, of rabbits pretending to be men, of women pretending they didn’t bleed between the legs, and I learned more trying to smile at the faces of the poor as they were ushered in to go to work on fixing computers that were already years outdated.

We needed them to learn something. Job training. More grants. More carrots for the mad rabbit.

I quit.
Of course.
But Hunter came with me.
His grapefruits.
His counter-culture consciousness.
His unafraid flow of idea and of word.
His way of making you laugh out loud at a page wet with ink and the telepathy of his mind.
It’s late.
I’m going to bed now.
Nicky says I’m making loud tapping sounds on the keys.
That’s okay. There will always be another night to kill, but never one dead like this.

Bradley Mason Hamlin, 2/21/05, a new day, just a little after midnight.
brad@retrocrush.com

------------------------------

As mentioned above, this lovely tribute was written by Brad Mason over at RetroCrush.com, a fine site, I might add.  It is thus far, the most beautiful thing I've read about the man.  And to my eyes, the truest.

Firstly let me apologize to anyone who has emailed, messaged, called, or carrier-pigeoned me these past couple days. I have been somewhat out of commission. I woke up the other day at about 5am from a dead sleep feeling a bit out-of-sorts. Thinking I simply needed a spot of water down the gullet, I get up. I didn't make it half-way to the kitchen before I realized something was obviously quite wrong.

I'll spare you the gory details, but suffice it to say that by the 7th hour of having every orifice in my body getting waaaay more action than it should in so narrow a time-frame, I opted to visit the doctor. As it turns out, I was suffering from a delightful bought of something called Norovirus. I shouldn't have been terribly surprised by this, considering that the floor of the children's hospital that my wife works at has been under varying degrees of quarantine for the better part of two weeks trying to get rid of it.

Now for those of you who are comrades, I will make it a point to hope dearly that you NEVER get it. And those of you that are enemies, boy oh boy, is this the stuff for you. In all honesty I can only think of one time in my life I've felt this sick, and I was delirious from a bad reaction to penicilin at the time. I'm a pretty cold guy sometimes, but it's really gut-wrenching to me to imagine the poor kids at the hospital fighting this now. I'm scared to death to go near my own daughter, for fear of spreading it to her. I'm told a person stays contagious for 2 weeks.

Anyhow, moving on.....

I've always enjoyed the music of Nik Kershaw. Many of you probably haven't heard of him, as he only had a handful of hits in the 80s and many of those were only chart-toppers in the UK. He also disappeared for a time in the early 90s to pursue a more subdued career as a writer and producer. But he has a certain way of making even whimsical lyrics sound as though they bear a far deeper meaning. He's also one of those ever-changing artists. His newer stuff is definitely a far-cry from the synth-pop political madness of the 80s. If your not familiar, I highly recommend giving it a listen. Ideally, give the album "Radio Musicola" a listen, and immediately follow it with "15 Minutes." Somewhere between the two, the truth surely lies.

In an attempt to get the handful of my comrades who are too slack to actually look into my suggestions, to actually sample this man's tunage, I'm linking 2 of his videos.

The first one is a sample of his earlier work, and happens to be my favorite. It's a simple song that voices a feeling we've all had towards someone at one time or another.

Wouldn't It Be Good

This second one is more indicative of the latter material, it is a more soulful ballad type of track, that I enjoyed.

Somebody Loves You

Be aware, that both videos are eccentric, and the former one has that all-to-familiar 80s vibe as well. So if your tired of my constant "retro-crap" be forewarned. Instead focus more on the music itself. I must however confess that the sound quality of these files leaves alot to be desired. Dropping the lose dollar on a high quality MP3 version would be worth it.

I've also gotten off my ass and finally registered my own domain. BadServo.com is now my official online digs. There's still not much content, but I'm slowly adding all my personal bookmarks, photos, etc. It's mainly for the benefit of my mother, who I fear will put a hit out on me if I don't get more pics of "her grandbaby" to her, either digitally or otherwise.

OK, now I'm accused of being many things. Weird, anal, and evil are oftne among the top 5. But I feel I'm a fair man. Especially where goods and services are concerned. However, I recently made a purchase, on a whim, that greatly disappoints me. It may well be that I'm overreacting. It may also be that a lesser man would shrug it off and continue his day without a care. But I'm angry enough to ban this product for the duration of my earthly existance.


The product in question?? BRAWNY PAPER TOWELS!!!

You see, I generally have bought "Bounty" brand paper towels for some years now. I find that they offer the best absorbancy of any premium paper towel. Also, Bounty has begun offering fun prints on there towels featuring "Spongebob Squarepants,"Dora the Explorer," and other Nicktoons favorites. The characters are crisp, clear, colorful, and feature interesting tidbits and kid's trivia.

On my most recent shopping excursion, I began to reach for my Bounty selection, when somethign caught my eye. I saw a selection of "Brawny" brand paper towels featuring images from Spider-Man. Being somewhat nostalgic, and a fanboy besides, I couldn't resist the promise of having Spidey swing into action from his perch atop my PT dispensor and web... er.. whipe up a myriad of unforseen messes.

However, when I got home with my purchase, I was BEYOND disappointed. The colors are faded and used sparingly. The colors bleed out from the defining lines of the figures. And the prints themselves are so blotchy and undefined that you simply cannot tell what the fuck your looking at. Now, I'm no professor. I've never once been tempted to turn a peice of tropical vegitation into a radio. But I can only assume that PT engineering techniques can't be that drastically different between companies. So why the fuck can't Brawny get a sharp quality image on their towels? I'm going to guess that after having spent so much money on the Spider-Man license, they could no longer afford to pay their quality assurance dept.

Add this tragically disappointing image quality to an already dismal performance in the area of absorbancy and cushiony softness, and you have one VERY dissaticefied customer. I'm not even goin to go into my anger over Brawny changing their marketing image to favor the "young metrosexual look" over it's own tried and true "hearty lumberjack look."

Below is a pic I took of the offending product. I left the image quite large so that you can zoom in and really behold that slipshot quality of the images. As such, I'm jsut gonna link to it's off-site location. Look especially at the upper-right image. Without the tell-tale logo beside it, I would never have bene able to guess that that mishapen purple blob was supposed to be the Green Goblin. Also, note that great care was taken during compression to ensure that none of the perceptual image quality was lost. Every blur and splotch is most assuredly due to the product itself and not the image compression.

http://img85.exs.cx/img85/8417/ptowel0yl.jpg

Another heads-up. I subscribed to the MMO "City of Heroes" for along time. And thoroughly enjoyed it. Anyhow, as part of a Valentine's Day promotion, NC Soft, the COH publisher has sent all long-time subscribers a URL and access code which can be used to download teh client and play free of charge for 14 days.

I don't personally know many people who play MMOs that aren't already playing either it, WOW, or EQ2. So if anyone reading this would like to become a proud defender of Paragon City, drop me a line. I may end up have 2 codes, as I did formerly have 2 account.

This isn't so much an update as a request for help. My buddie Tucker, in his infinite generosity, gave me an old laptop which has been serving as my router/firewall/file server for months on end with no protest. It's not powerful, but it's a tough little worker. For various reasons, I've had need of a method to do basic web-browsing and IRC duties away from my desktop machine. Initially, my plan was to use an old athlon box as my router, and use the laptop for roaming. However, the CDROM in the laptop has apparently spun it's last disc, and would be difficult for me to work with. Also the wiring in the apartment is not really conducive to using the athlon machine as a router.

Fortunately I'm getting my tax return soon. ^_^ So if anyone has a functioning old laptop they'd be willing to part with on the cheap, trade for, or donate to the cause, I'd be grateful to hear from you. The laptop would not need to be powerful at all, as I'll be mainly using email, web, and IRC on it, and most likely using a micro linux distro for that. Above all else, it need only be inexpensive, as I can't spend 300 bucks on something that will basically be used for my personal amusment. And the used equipment stores here are brutal on laptop prices.

I also am in the market for a Wireless Access Point. Again if you have a used one lying around, name your price. I would perfer either a standard AP with no additional functionality, or a AP/Router combo unit that can have the router/firewall functionality disbaled.

Thanx

I'm curious.... what exactly the hell happened to kids-show theme songs? I remember when I was younger that the theme songs to shows in general were alot better. Either a quirky tune that suited the feel of the program, or a romping good song to set up the premise. Lately I watch alot of shows geared for younger viewers, and I can't see how anyone could possibly write such utter garbage. Most of them are little more than a single line repeated over and over with mild inflection changes and some godawful casio from hell tune trudging along in the background. Many adult themed shows don't fair much better. Prime examples are most of the Noggin line-up. Shows such as Miffy, Maizey, 64 Zoo Lane make my brain hemmorage everytime they begin to play.

Retro-Crush has been running an ongoing countdown of the greatest television themes of all time, with a startling amount of info on each. It's a fun trip down memeory lane and also a grim reminder of the swill people are forced to watch these days. Hardly anything on TV holds a candle to whimsical follies of shows such as "What's Happening!!" On a related note, I used to work with a guy who owns one of Fred Perry's jackets. Long story....

Childrens toys are also very crappy these days. Set aside the fact that none of them look even remotely fun, the real irritant is that they all rely on some pitiful gimmick to not only sell the one toy, but to trick you into submitting yourself to further advertising onslaughts. The most glaring example of this is the "needles toy-movie tie-in." For example, Mattel will issue a direct to video DVD of "Barbie: Princess & the Pauper." Then spend the next 6 months hocking products based completely on that film alone, or that only function with that film... ie, talking cat doll. It was also particularly clever of Mattel to choose this fairy-tale. One of the primary elements of the story being that both the princess and the pauper look identical, excepting hair color. This allows them to make both dolls from a single mold and sell twice as many units of what is inherantly the same toy.

Also particularly devious is the "free needless toy/movie ti-in." This occurs when a company includes a DVD of a 15-20 minute show poorly animated by a starving 5 year old in Korea with their toys. This way, the unsuspecting parent buys the child a single toy from an unknown property, and then basically hands the child a 20 minute commercial for every other god-forsaken product the company makes. These shows serve no real story-telling purpose, but rather serve to introduce as many characters (dolls) and locations (playsets) as possible. Diabolical marketting if I ever saw it.

The worst idea for a toy I've seen recently is this.... well, I'l simply quote the jingle. I think that should be enough to convey the absurdity of this item. "The triplets were a handful, so when the nanny quit, their parents finally realized a DOG could babysit." I mean really... come on!! Are we THAT FUCKING low on original concept's people? A goddamn dog babysitter? This is just a shameful attempt to liquidate all the overstock from one or more of the variations of tiny pet/tiny baby playsets. Honestly...

I also need to say that the show "Oobie" is very fucked up, and will no doubt haunt my nightmares for ages. Why is god's name must they talk that way. WTF is a "grandpoo?"

And when is every channel on TV going to stop shamelessly stealing or needlessly reinventing brittish television programs? It's fine like it is you assholes. Almost TLCs entire lineup of late is inpired by brittish programming.

For you fellow Discovery Channel fans, this Monday sees a premiere episode of "American Chopper," as well as a 2-hour "Monster House" special. I luv that shit. I want large, emotionally-challenged men and a former stage actor to ransack my apartment and turn it into a fucking karaoke bar or something. How cool is that?

Just a quick note. I have recently come to the sad conclusion that I may in fact be the sanest person I know. This is particularly dismaying to me when you consider that the stuff that runs through my mind would possibly make the guy from "Tell-Tale Heart" blush. On the one hand, there's my wife, who claims she isn't a geek, but can ID elven writing on sight and knows the color of Kevin Mitnick's hair. Then there's my good buddy, the IT admin, who has a phobia of downloading files. Then you have one of my artist buddies who hates artists becasue they are pretentious. I mean, WTF!!

Speaking of the missus, I think it's rather funny that she will descrbibe an area as "too ghetto" when there is a Red Lobster a block away. She also actually exlaimed, "But, we're in the middle of NOWHERE!!" while in the parking lot between Ingles and Wal-Mart. She has obviously lived in a metro area too long. She would often exclaim, when I'd suggest she travel to Wal-Mart for some needed item, that it was "waaaay out there." Nevermind that the Wal-Mart was an 8 min drive from our former residence.

No real point to this entry other than to vent some random thoughts..... Now I think I'll stop typing, as this is the season that the flesh of my hands likes to bleed and crack like the techtonic plates of Pangea.

Also spoke to a fellow livejournaleer last night. It was great because he speaks (at least via IM) just as he writes, which is anything but a bad thing. If you want to read something that can be insightful and yet also contains phrases like "god-human shield," then check out his work at The z-Axis.

Just wanted to drop a quick post here for any fellow Neil Gaiman fans. His story/script, Mirrormask has really taken shape over at Jim Hensen studios. The official site is up and has an awe-inspiring trailer as well as some groovy pics and wallpaper. Check it out at http://www.sonypictures.com/mirrormask/main.html. This is one I'm looking forward to. Good, atmospheric, and eerie. Haven't seen a film like that in a while. If anyone can bring the imagination of Gaiman to life, it's the masters at Jim Hensen's Creature Shop.

On a completely unrelated note, I've been a fan of internet radio for a long time. My preferred method is Shoutcast, and I listen to ALOT of 80s music. Lately I've been listening to nothing but Dayglo Radio. This is the ULTIMATE 80s station. They play the absolute best mix of tunes I didn't even realize I had forgotten about. It's nice to see someone dedicated enough to make a retro playlist consisting of more than just those same 100 songs the traditional stations play becasue they were "chart-toppers." To steal the site's own tagline, "Give us 20 minutes - We'll give you a kick ass listening experience. Truer words were never spoken. Also, no ads, seldom drops, and run by a professional DJ who keeps his fucking mouth shut.

Ah, it feels good to stretch my journal again. I've been missing in action for far too long. I wish I could say that I have some remarkable and perfectly reasonable excuse for not having updated in so long, but alas, this is not the case. There were no abduction plots. No bouts of international espionage. No gypsy seductress or russian diplomat whisking me away to lands undreamed of. In fact, I've simply been lazy. I've had a great many inspirations to write since my previous entry, and yet never seem to conjure up the initiative lately. I'm simply going to chock it up as a case of post-holiday BLAH and let it go.

Those of you who speak to me regularly may have noticed a brief respite from any communication these past few days. This is due to an impromptu expedition to the mountains. The missus and I decided it was time for a bit of R&R, and rightly so. We rented out a log cabin up in Cherokee, NC. And if I do say so myself, we had a fabulous time.

Now those of you that also know me well are no doubt hemorrhaging as your brain rejects the concept of me in a cabin in the mountains. I assure you, I'm as shocked as you are. I am decidedly NOT an outdoorsy guy. In fact, rare has the occasion arisen that I've willingly touched a tree since age 12. But this venture was one surprise after another. When the cabin was rented, the pics we were provided did give the appearance of a nice, comfy, modern cabin environment. It seemed as though it would be small, and didn't implicitly mention heating or any kind; but nevertheless we were confident we could survive it. But when I arrived, I could not have been more impressed. The cabin was very attractive, incredibly roomy, and absolutely oozing with charm. It had nice furniture, was amply supplied with cooking implements and dishes. Had a full kitchen with a microwave, oven/stove, toaster, auto-can-opener, etc. It was equipped with not only cable television in the front room, but with cable television in the bathroom!! A bathroom, I might also add, which had a jacuzzi tub.

Now, I don't care how far up the hills I go, or how many bears I'm likely to have to fight off to get to the car, few things can compare to watching "Hey, Spring of Trivia" in a hot jacuzzi while sipping on a pineapple screwdriver. ^_^ Another fun thing, was the fact that since this time of year is the off-season for Cherokee, there was no real traffic to speak of. And although some of the more chintzy, touristy attractions of the surrounding area were closed, there was alot to see and enjoy. We spent alot of time out in the Smokey Mountain State Park, walking trails that were rife with waterfalls and gorgeous flora. There were several lengthy drives in the country up windy mountain roads that bend into the horizon and follow the sounds of the rushing rivers below. All in all, it was very exhilarating. The fact that a little clear mountain air virtually erased my allergies for a few days was also pleasant.

On the way back, we stopped at the Tallulah Falls Park and walked those trails as well. The views from the various outlooks is breathtaking. I highly recommend anyone in the area to stop and have a look. And for anyone who, like me, could stand to drop a pound or two, here's some advice.. ...few things can make you "feel the burn" like trudging along a mountain gorge while carrying an 18 lb. infant. Trust me on this one.

I also must take this opportunity to issue a formal apology to my good friend Brian. This was originally going to be an apology directed at both he and Lindsey, but I've decided to withhold her apology in retribution for her not wearing the silky blue number that we discussed. That is not to say that the alternate stripes weren't alluring, but I have a fetish that involves the nanny from Muppet Babies, so perhaps I'm not the best judge. ^_^ Anyhow, I sincerely and unconditionally surrender my deepest regret for forcing Brian to sit through the film "Lemony Snicket's: A Series of Unfortunate Events." I feel that even a lifetime of friendship, and a possible donation of bone marrow, couldn't even begin to compensate one for having witnessed this train-wreck of a film.

It's as if the filmmakers secretly conspired to have every single interesting or enjoyable thing contained within the books summarily executed and replaced with some trite and inconsequential occurence. Quite simply the heart, soul, and mystique of the books was boiled down to a ridiculously loose narrative with no purpose at all, except to string together a series of lavish set-pieces and ultimately become a failed vehicle for James Carrey. I couldn't have been more disappointed. The sorrow I felt can only be described as the feeling one might get upon having one's analyst tell him that the hot and erotic dreams he has nightly are manifestations of his mother or something. AVOID THIS MOVIE AT ALL COSTS.

I suppose I should also mention that I have not been avoiding the live journal due to a World of Warcraft addiction. While I am still quite taken with the game, anyone who plays can tell you that it's been very difficult to do so since the Christmas rush. The servers have been assaulted with a series of torments usually reserved only for the elite of hell.

Well, that's enough babbling for now. I'll pop back in later to spew out some more riveting bits of useless data, when the mood overtakes me. Till then, you stay classy, San Diego.





I also thought this was rather funny. This is written on the pump at a BP station I stopped at in north Georgia. Thank god the included detailed instructions for each separate scenario. ^_^