see stars, milky way, even mars
2001.01.29 2.03
I wish that I could fly. Up to the sky. So very high. Just like a dragonfly. I'd fly above the trees. Over the seas. In all degrees. To anywhere I please. Oh. I want to get away. I want to fly away. In my DeLorean. I'll be having fun. Cars I will out-run. Please forgive my pun. But at any rate. I want to tempt my fate. Then I'll pick a date. And I'll drive 88.
When I was in Florida and living within the confines of the Hampton Inn, I was always on time. I flossed and brushed twice a day. I went to bed at a decent hour. The hotel room was immaculate. I was aware of every item in there that was mine. As it stands right now, my house is full of junk. I have to refer back to something I said last year in my blog about ''if I am not using something, I probably don't need it.'' It is hard to get rid of my baggage. I think I can name the most important elements that I'd like to save in case of disaster. My piano. My dog. My clothes. My cars. My CDs (both audio and computer backups). My pictures. I think that's it? That's 6 things. I hope that day never comes, but it is interesting to entertain the idea of only having a few things to keep track of one day. In truth, I doubt it will ever happen. Storage is just TOO convenient, and it beats the hell out of just having your memories of things. To actually still have something from the past and to touch it. There's a connection that you can't lose. That's why people go to old buildings or to movie locations or famous landmarks. Those are places that we are all aware of. We have memories of them, but to actually touch them makes it more personal. Even more interesting is being able to touch a celebrity. True, they are still just another person. But the media has gone out of its way to introduce you to them and give you information about them. Would it be weird if we were all celebrities? All you had to do to find out about someone you'd just met was to look for their fan site on the internet. A few celebrities that I have touched (shaken hands with) include: George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Hunter, and Oliver North. I've also spoken to Bill Murray. I've seen a ton more in real life, but didn't really interact. See? If you're not collecting momentos and other junk, you're collecting memories. You only live once, though, so you might as well do as much as possible while you're here, right? Now, please excuse me while I go touch my high school yearbook and my Batman costume.
pour your misery down on me
2001.01.28 0.47
For those unaware, I wear hard gas-permeable contacts. You're not supposed to wear them 24/7. I know that now. I used to think that was just something they told you. Nope. When I woke up this past Monday my eyeball was wretching and burning a bright luminescent color of red and orange. Went to the family doctor. Got sent to the opthamologist from there. They made me go there immediately. Not wanting to lose my eye, I drove to the opthamologist with my one good eye. Got lots of bright lights, medicine drops and ointment liquids shoved into my eye. Got a tiny bottle of stuff to put in it every 4 hours. All was well late the next day. The picture below of my eyeball was taken after my first return visit. There aren't a lot of afflictions that you can document with a picture. Well, I guess you could take a picture of your nasty green phlegm, but you've got to draw the line somewhere.Went to Jacksonville, Florida on business. Took some pictures. Lots of normal people there. Nobody outstanding. Prior to arriving I had to make a connecting flight in Atlanta, Georgia. The airport had trashcans that said ''Thank You!'' after you put something in them. I did have some video of the verbally appreciative trashcans, but for the second time in a row I have somehow lost the file. I also had video from this past New Year's but that too is long gone. Maybe I need to re-read the manual. Okay. Maybe I need to read the manual. Can I help it if I'm a guy? I don't need no stinking manuals!
My sleeping schedule was messed up this week so before I went to Florida I stayed up an entire night and drove to the airport the next morning. Why? Because I was able to go to sleep whenever I wanted to after doing that. I slept on the plane. I took a nap at the hotel. I took a nap before dinner. It was great. I woke up at 6 A.M. the next morning - perfect timing - and enjoyed being first in line for the free breakfast from The Hampton Inn lobby. Scary thing about their free breakfast was that all of the bacon looked identical - like they had been replicated or copied. The cranberry and apple juice was okay. The orange juice, however, tasted like citrus flavored butt.
i hear the voices when i'm dreaming
2001.01.24 0.19
Carry on my wayward son. There'll be peace when you are done. Lay your weary head to rest. Don't you cry no more. Okay? Here. Take a tissue. That's right. Let it all out. That's it. Now, don't you feel better? Hmmm? I thought so. Now, here. Take this machete and get back to work.Was listening to a Foo Fighters cover of Kansas' Carry On My Wayward Son and it is a hilarious track. Dave Grohl, who I admire from a distance, admits to the concert audience that he doesn't know the words to the song. They get some fan in the front row to sing the song. Some guy named Tom. It would be a dealio to be Tom. I used to never sing along with songs, but a few years ago I was in New Orleans in a karioke (?) bar. I thought that if they could do it, I could do it. So far I am sorely behind in learning cool songs. I can sing along with Weird Al in that Bye Bye Miss American Pie parody he did called My, My, This Here Annakin Guy.
If you want to listen to any of the songs I just mentioned, browse my Napster share under the handle supergenius! and download away. I also recommend the Marilyn Manson / Shannon K cover of My Girlfriend's Girlfriend. Originally recorded by Type O Negative (how appropriate since that's my my blood type), it's a freaky coolio little cover and I highly recommend it for getting ready in the morning. It's a lot faster than the original version (which I also have on the share). Consider this my alternative to buying you a Mountain Dew.
MarkWahlberg.com has my site redesign on it. But just wait. I have crazy flash and a even newer look to apply in the next day or so. We're also confirmed to be going to ''Rock Star'' so that's awesome! I'm gonna pick a fight with Brad Pitt and tell him that I don't need him running my life anymore. I'm then gonna throw some soap at him and tell him I don't need his stinking soap no more! Okay. Maybe I won't do that.
Procrastination is like a comfy warm sweater that you can never completely cover yourself with.
golden globe
2001.01.22 19.19
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1. uveitis n : inflammation of the uvea of the eye. 2. uveitis, posterior : Inflammation of the choroid as well as the retina and vitreous body. Some form of visual disturbance is usually present. The most important characteristics of posterior uveitis are vitreous opacities, choroiditis, and chorioretinitis. 3. hurtz-lyka muthafuh : definitely! omigod! like, yes! |
| Yahoo | University of Wisconsin | New Mexico Technet |
| San Francisco | University of Notre-Dame | EuroNet |
| Echo Online (Canada) | EUNet Finland | COLT Germany |
battlefield earth
2001.01.20 13.50
Went to Number's last night and took more pictures. I thought I was going to see a friend from work, but she didn't make it. Instead, I got to basically get drunk for free and do things which I don't exactly recall now. Nothing raunchy. Just conversations that I wasn't recording with my brain. Had a run in with the law. We chatted and discussed why a car spinning around and fishtailing is OK. They didn't buy my reasoning (we hit a unmarked gravity well). Their loss. Hope they fall into it. Alex wasn't there but cuties were still around.Heard that Rose McGowan and Marilyn Manson split up this week. I really wanted that to work out. Manson is a great guy guy. No, I'm not being facetious. He is a musician and he has talent. He's an artist. He speaks his mind. When he got engaged to Rose, he gave her an antique diamond ring. Pretty damn romantic, man. That stuff is cool. So, after being together for two or three years they are completely broken up. Rose is 26. Manson just turned 32 on January 5th so he's about 8 months older than me. Who knows why engagements don't work out. Is it better to engage and then break up as opposed to engage, marry, and then break up. I think option #1. Even better is to date and then break up before engaging. I have never engaged before. Well, that's not completely true. I have an ex-girlfriend from when I was 17 (she was 15) who was telling people that we were going to get married. It was a bit disarming to hear that second hand. I also was pseudo engaged back in 1994 when my ex-girlfriend Betsy got engaged. Everyone at my college saw us still hanging out as friends. They knew we had dated before. I guess news of the breakup wasn't properly distributed. So, she gets engaged. She has this giant diamond ring and is showing it around to people. Later that day someone comes up to me and says, "Congratulations!" Confused, I ask what for? The person starts to stammer and say, "Well, uhhh... on your... uh... you know, your engagement." I corrected them and went along my way. Laughing. In retrospect that's kind of sad. I have a string of ex-girlfriends who went on to get married. I feel like I'm a marriage training guy or something. I don't get the prize at the end, but I'm there on that mentoring level. Another friend of mine from high school, Darwin Keys, had the same problem. He's the drummer for the band PushMonkey. Buy their album. They rock (literally). Darwin was also a marriage trainer. Wondering how I can train girls for something else besides that. I have some ideas, but they are mostly naughty and impure. Hmmm. Must shower now.
i am superman's crack pipe
2001.01.15 22.10
Okay, so I just found out Oktober KNOWS Alex. See my 1/13 entry for scoop. I love coincidence. Oktober asked if she remembered me. Reply: ''Nope.'' Apparently there was too much focus at the time on the aforementioned puke, being a model, getting yelled at, saying ''Dammit!'' and having her friend leave early. The good news? She's moved in town from Austin and will be staying here permanently. Yay! I realize I have no freaking chance, but what the hell? Right on.Woke up yesterday. Went to kitchen. Sat at table. Saw giant water puddle. Remembered it rained on Saturday night. Touched drippy ceiling. Time passed. Went to Home Depot. Bought roof patch stuff, stainless steel big ass flashlight and lotsa D cell batteries. Went into attic. Found out a pipe had a tiny crack in it causing whole problem. Yelled ''Crap!'' like, thirty times. Turned off water to house. Drained lines. Poked hole in ceiling sheetrock and let water drain into bucket. Went into attic and said ''Crap!'' a few more times. Pointed oscillating fan at ceiling and went to bed.
Also noticed Electralux is linking to me. Wondering if anyone will view my freaky NIN stuff. Jerald introduced me to Electralux so consider this props and encouragement to check out his site. So many redesigns. Wondering what Electralux will turn into next. My dream? A fully illustrated Mud Wrestling Tips & Tricks site.
Had a kick ass idea for a short three minute movie. I'll give you the quick treatment version: I am in my living room and watching George Bush concede and Al Gore accepting the presidency. I throw up my hands. I run to the DeLorean. I go back in time a few months. I hand out pamphlets in Florida giving confusing instructions about how to vote. I talk to the guy designing the ballots and convince him that the butterfly ballot is the way to go. I switch Al Gore's cards during a debate with cards that tell him to sigh and make an ass of himself. I come back to the present day and see that now Bush is the winner and Gore has lost. During his speech, Bush says he is going to pass a law that I don't like. I look at the keys to the DeLorean, tap my finger, and then grab 'em and take off again. Okay, so a treatment is not gonna convey the humor I intend to infuse, but I think you get the picture. If you have anything to add to the cheese that is to be, speak up.
Found out Oktober might possible know the Alex chick from Number's on Friday night. She was a cutie, man. But, dude! I was on the Ford Modeling Agency site and I'll be damned if I could find her anywhere on there. Total waste of nine hours.
I heard ''Save The Last Dance'' was number one last week. What the hell? How did this happen? And then it struck me. Remember I mentioned all those attractive people at Numbers? They were there cuz college is still out of session. However, this week college is starting back up and all the attractive people will surely be returning to their college homes and leaving the city high and dry. Something tells me there aren't a lot of people that live somewhere else and then come here to Houston to go to college.
alive
2001.01.13 13.21
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| Joy Mallory and her daughter, Nakesha Beith, 4, test the sturdiness of a mystery monolith as other curious spectators circle the 9-foot-tall steel sculpture which stands on a grassy noll in Magnuson Park, Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2001, in Seattle. No one knows who installed the sculpture, reminscent of the structure in the landmark science fiction movie, 2001: A Space Odyssey. The unmarked sculpture appears to have been put in place on New Year's Eve. There is no plaque or other clue to the sculptor. When questioned about the significance of the monolith's appearance, Super Genius Mark Shields responded, "I'm not sure, but I do know that I want to sit on top of it!" (AP Photo/CherylHatch) |
There was some interesting article on the net about a miraculous new invention that is only known by the name 'It' and codenamed Ginger. Speculation has been rampant about what 'It' really is. CNN seems to think 'It' is a motorized scooter. That makes some sense since a patent for that type of machine was filed just last month by the same guys who say that have invented 'It.' I wish 'It' were not that. My starry eyed ideas for 'It' include: time travel device (of course), matter transporter, antigravity device, fusion generator, photon torpedoes and perhaps another sequel to Lethal Weapon.
Went to Number's last night. The crowd was way more goth and very interesting. Lots of attractive people were in attendance. Not sure what happened. In the last few months I've noticed a harsh imbalance in the ugly:attractive ratio. I met a cute girl named Alex late in the evening just before I left. She was ranting about an earlier incident involving herself, the bathroom, puke, and somebody who works for Numbers bitching her out for puking in the bathroom. She was a site. In only two minutes I learned she lived in River Oaks ("Dammit, I live in River Oaks, how dare they treat me this way!"). I learned she was a Ford agency model ("Dammit, I am a Ford Model, I can puke wherever I want to!"). I learned she was twenty-one ("Dammit, I'm twenty-one!"). She called the place dirty and a dive. True that. Some James Dean looking guy with purple bangs was also there, listening, making minor one-word attempts at reassurance. I attempted to offer guidance. I asked that she blow it off - life was too short. She didn't want to ("Dammit, something is gonna go down!"). Before anything went down, Alex suddenly realized her ride, a girl I'd met earlier who was able to remember my name - bonus, had left. Alex took off, cursing as she walked away ("Dammit, Dammit, Dammit!"). I love Number's!
i'm sick... ah-choo
2001.01.11 7.25
Again with the sickness. This time is it a fully qualified virus giving me trouble. It hasn't completely overtaken me, however. I feel congested and stuffy, but not much else. Coughing isn't fun. I love my box of Kleenex. I am tempted to work from home, but I've got to make appearances if I expect to make things happen for my career in the next few weeks. Long story. I'll give the lowdown when it's all over.Sold my analog Hi-8mm camcorder on eBay for $425. Dumb eBay was down most of the day before my auction ended, so I feel that I lost out on some bidding. I couldn't retract my item while eBay was down either. So, I will live with $425 and use it to buy a Digital-8 camcorder. Yay. Firewire, here I come. I do not know what I am going to do with it. Maybe we'll make Carl's movie that is set out in the desert. It's a quaint tale about used cars, barbeque, haggling and homicide. I see it as a 10 minute short. Maybe if we flesh out the story with some flashbacks detailing how the Grinch was born and raised, then we could... oh... wait, that's been done.
come posso sposare questa donna?
2001.01.08 22.55
I have two CDs that have bad skips in them. Maroon by the Bare Naked Ladies and the latest Gary Numan CD (it's name is so new it escapes me). I hate that I spent money on these fragile things and they are screwed now. How do you undo a scratch? It makes me like Napster all the better. Ugh. The other thing that I am irritated about tonight is that I am still finding more electronic equipment damaged by Gatorade. One of the controllers on my PlayStation 2 is now useless after being drenched in Gatorade a few weeks ago. Moral of the story? Never tick off your ex-girlfriend while she is holding a bottle of Gatorade with the top off.Jerald has really, really good taste.
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| AverMedia software programmer Bob Henderson decided he didn't need to re-check the latest version of the AverMedia USB drivers before approving them for consumer use. Bob thought to himself, "Oh, what heck me is? <Wrong>, it be okay! Poop!" |
let them know it's christmas time
2001.01.07 16.58
I was on Napster last night and looking for good tunes. I am only serving up 150 files but I have a weird selection including the Superman II soundtrack along with a lot of Guster. My Napster handle is supergenius! (with the exclaimation point) if you'd like to take a look at my stuff. I got a Napster Instant Message from some jerk who said, "Thanks a lot, jackass!" I looked at the transfer window to see that this idiot couldn't get a download to complete. Wasn't my fault. But I took this as a challenge to my manhood. I am not a jackass. I am a human being. I was tempted to tell him I was not affiliated with MTV Productions and that he should go to the MTV website for further info. Instead, I told him I was going to trace his IP and format his hard drive. He cursed once again and then I told him I was gonna forego formatting his drive and instead install BarbieŽ Digital Makeover permanently and remove his Add/Remove Applications icon. Some people just don't know who they are messing with.
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I have been re-working my DeLorean pages and added a new section called How Does Time Travel Work? It is based on theory, of course, but it sounds plausible. Even more so based upon your current blood-alchohol content. I have been collecting links to people hanging around Back to the Future DeLoreans for the last few weeks and will put together a Freak section for that. Along my way I found what has to be the WORST paper ever written in college. Now, this guy was in a class of students that were still learning English, but my goodness, please proofread before subjecting the earth to your "work."
Last tidbit for the day is a site I found while trying to see how many people link to my friend Oktober Night. I think this is a club somewhere in Germany, although the domain has a .ch extension. The Scarlett Nitelife will reveal how different things are in Europe. I mean, come on, are tweezers illegal over there, or what? Actually, I'm not sure if that is really a girl or not. Be sure to check out the Photos section for lots of freaky fotos from the deutschland.
where was i?
2001.01.06 22.03
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| Upon hearing the news that Mark Shields was going over the prospects of marriage, Drew Barrymore immediately dropped out of her pending marriage to MTV comedian Tom Green, bought a tight pair of leather pants and a plane ticket to Houston. "I can't believe she's gone! I mean, yeah, he's great and all, but what am I gonna do now?" inquired a somber Green. |
Standing around playing pool at Adam and Shawn's place. Very drunk. 30 minutes until the end of the millenium. Did I mention I was drunk? Just saw my first episode of Sex and the City and was impressed. Almost saw an episode of Queer as Folk but luckily Will and Steve talked us into another channel. Second episode of Sex is on right now. Interesting way to enter the 21st century. Told everyone that one of my resolutions for the new year was to find my future wife and marry her. There was a lot of talk about how I would have to work fast but I have faith that this is the year that it's going to happen. Oktober is here eating Tostitos and drinking a strawberry daquiri that Shawn made. This episode is sexy so I am happy (and drunk). Not sure what I will do at the stroke of midnight. Last year I had to do Y2K stuff at 5 AM the following morning for 12 hours so this year there's less to worry about. Perhaps I will clean the house. Perhaps I will find leaves to turn over. Maybe I'll do some laundry.
My next entry came five days later on the 5th while I was sitting in court waiting for the judge to bust a move:
Sitting in courtroom number three waiting on the fate of my ticket. Tiny little kid to my right. Wondering if she wants to play with this wireless device. Sorry, not a toy. Okay, they just left. I think the dad saw trouble as she started to become fascinated by how fast I can type with my thumb. Surly bunch in here. Unusual things about this docket include two people who had their names misspelled and an enormous number of hispanic people. Another weird thing is that the only other two non-hispanic people here happen to be the people who have their names misspelled. Conspiracy! Judge pronounced my middle name correctly (most people skip it). It is Chahine and can be pronounced as either 'Shane' or 'Sha-heen' -- you can probably guess that I prefer the first version.
Very sleepy. At midnight I decided that I really wanted to go to the movie premiere in LA for Rock Star, Mark Wahlberg's next flick. To the uninitiated, I used to run MarkyMark.com and MarkWahlberg.com. At first I did it in an unofficial capacity because all I really wanted was the domain markymark.com. Two girls in the Netherlands were running the site until 1998 when they began searching for new caretakers for the site. Most of the content dealt with Mark when he was a rapper, so that made it easier on me for updates because nothing really changed. I got the job easily. It paid nothing, it was unofficial, but it had hella-traffic. I redesigned the site and added lots of GQ colors (black, dark blues, grays) to give the site more of a straightforward appearance. Before I did this I kept getting offers for help from gay sites dedicated to lusting over Mark. After the rainbows and giant pictures of his chest were removed they suddenly stopped writing. Besides, I am busy lusting after the 18 and over female population. Only odd thing is that you're a legal adult in Texas when you turn 17. Check out ageofconsent.com if you are worried about your dating partner being too young for you. Very strange considering the society and culture of Texas is sooo conservative. I am not looking to date anyone younger than 21, however. Having a college degree is also a nice feature.
I ran MarkWahlberg.com solo until Wahlberg's management wrote me out of the blue and asked about doing everything under their control. They would pay all fees and hosting costs. I got tickets to see 'Three Kings' and 'The Perfect Storm' in Los Angeles at the world premiere with all of the stars. I will write about those experiences later. I basically did small tasks but my work schedule made anything difficult like a redesign that would please Mark's personal assistant was a major pain in the ass. They wanted first generation (circa 1997) look and feel. And ugly colors. It was hard to let artistic license get away from me and let the site quality go down. Another problem was the Fan Club section that my company did for cheap. It did not match the site (both then and even now). In the end, Mark's management gave control to some firm called The Wilen Group but they have done basically jack. They were unable to transfer the fan club database that we'd made so that was a loss. But that's okay cuz he never paid my company for the work. He also was using a lot of bandwidth and never paid the hosting company for those charges. Whatever. Today I'm surprised that the message board even works because it was broken for several weeks when they moved the domain. These guys also disabled the MarkyMark domain altogether. Search engines spidered that domain so many times since the site went up in early 1996 and now all that traffic as well as links were broken.
I designed a comp (creative geek speak for proposed graphic layout design) that does not venture too far from how the site looks today, but I applied more recent looks and styles. I am keeping my fingers crossed that this will get me back in with them, but we will see. The next film, Rock Star, opens April 13th so the premiere will likely be at the start of April. I'm hoping to bring someone from my company again only this time with the intent of networking with all of the executives and all the other vendors that worked on the film for Warner Brothers. George Clooney produced this film so he is sure to be there. I have a Clooney story that I will tell in a future blog.
Back to my courtroom woes... The prosecuting attorney tells me my case is being reset which sucks. I went up to the judge. He was the same pleasant guy from the arraignment. He told me there were no jurors for my trial, but he could arrange 6 police officers to be my jury. HA! Ummm... no. I asked if I could use some of the people in the courtroom for my jury. He laughed and declined. So we rescheduled. Judge started to say, "How about February sehhh... errr... I mean how about Ground Hog Day?" I agreed and was off after sitting around and accomplishing nothing more than some log entries for the past three hours. I was given a lengthy warning about representing myself and blah blah blah. Heard this before. I decided I'd see what kind of discount I could get from the lawyer's across the street now that I'm a recurring customer. $85 and they'd do it. Fine. Wrote check. Went back to car. Drove to work. Arrived. Got chided by Jerald who asked (and I'm paraphrasing), "Do you still work here?"
