special

2003.02.27 7.28

Mr. Rogers died last night, only a few hundred miles away from here. He will be missed.

return of the jedi

2003.02.25 16.26

Had a pretty good weekend. I'm almost done with my ActiveX tasks which is both a relief and kind of sad since the sandbox you get to play in with ActiveX usually means you can do way cool things. I will post a update later tonight. Have to pick up the dog before 6:30 PM. I am thisclose to finishing the Oregon trip video -- just a few more captions and I'm trying to shave off one more minute to bring it in at 20 minutes. Not bad considering I have 90 minutes of video (and a tendency to babble).

I'm selling the laptop I bought last month on eBay. It's good and fast, but I feel like I should be using a much smaller laptop. There are also two little pressure spots on the LCD panel which, while not lessening how awesome the machine is, I am super picky about and would rather them not be there. I'm starting the bidding at $500, although brand new last year this machine went for $1700 and I bought it from a friend of mine for $1000 only a few months ago. Now's the time to save, SAVE, S*A*V*E!

keep shoveling

2003.02.19 7.02

Spent the last three days snowed in. I would have stayed again but my office was open and the only problem I have is finding a spot to park in once I get back. The snow is annoying. I have a very clear recollection of being in elementary school and walking home one blistering cold morning. I decided then and there that I would rather die in the heat than in the cold. With the heat you just pass out and you're done with. With the cold you slow down and get sluggish. I understand that you get sleepy as you become hypothermic, but I'm not patient enough. What if I'm only freezing in 30 degree weather? It'll take me forever to go hypo. With the overheating, it's over. I know a baseball player just died a few days ago from heat exhaustion, but I understand he was also doing some over the counter meds that didn't go with his regimen. Sad. I still pick heat.

Want to read my rant about the peace marches and how they're nice but in the end will do nothing? If you are already offended by the description I've just given, I'd recommend *not* clicking. Otherwise...

This annoying war talk has taken me back to late 1990 when everyone was whining about the exact same things about going to war. Almost all of the points are the same. There were rallies then, too. Why doesn't anybody remember this? Why weren't there rallies before we attacked Afghanistan? If you will step into the wayback machine briefly you will find several instances of pacifist folks who said we shouldn't attack Afghanistan. These guys were berated as unAmerican and ignored for the most part. Now that we have become comfortable again we are playing our favorite game... the Second-Guessing game. You don't have to know anything to play! You just need an opinion. No wonder it's so popular. Anyway, so, were we really more justified attacking Afghanistan than Iraq? Polls show that even *more* people were opposed to 1991 Iraq war compared to the upcoming 2003 Iraq war. And the sad thing is that this appears to be extremely party-line driven. People who didn't like Bush in the first place I'm sure will chime in on this anti-war thing if they think it will get rid of Bush. Outside of our country where there are no partisan lines, the world generally loves to bash the president of the United States. I remember the good ol' days when all I heard was Clinton bashing during the Lewinsky debacle which was replaced by controversy over the pardons he made which replaced by controversy of Bush's bushisms and how he had no command of the English language. Too bad all this nonsense was happening at the same time the 9/11 hijackers were going about their business with flight training and attending Al Q'aada summer camp. They weren't plotting their attacks with a president in mind. They wanted to f*** up our country and everything it stands for. Whenever I hear someone rant about how we're headed for World War III, I am reminded of my 4th grade math teacher, Mr. Waltman, bitching in 1981 about how Reagan "was gonna lead us into nuclear war and World War III, no doubt about it!" Right. Everyone always pulls out the ''This will lead to World War III'' card whenever they want to justify why we should not pursue a military resolution. Attacking the son of a bitch that is Saddam Hussein will not result in World War III. It's impossible. I'll bet the farm on it. After this war is over and the coalition forces have ousted Saddam, the protesters will return their focus to complaining about domestic issues and trying to pin blame for anything and everything. So, I hope this rant doesn't piss off too many of my less conservative friends. In a year we'll all have an entirely new issue to talk about. Bet me on this.

moviemaker

2003.02.15 18.14

A sample of what to expect from my Oregon trip video journal. This requires Windows Media Player 9 codecs, so if you haven't upgraded lately, go there now.

sharon!

2003.02.13 6.44

Forgot to give ''The Osbournes'' a glowing review for the episode this past Tuesday night entitled, ''My Big Fat Jewish Wedding.'' Hilarity. Ozzy struggled to maintain his composure when Sharon recited her own personal vows to Ozzy. We need more stuff like that on TV. Joe Millionaire and The Mole and Fear Factor all suck (well, except for Fear Factor cuz of the pretty girlies... and Joe Rogan is cool). Ahem.

I was briefly worried that Mr. Wil Wheaton was abandoning the blog community yesterday. His departure was short-lived, however, when he revealed that these rude neighbors combined with rude blog trolls had been ruining his day. I don't turn on comments on my site because, well, I don't. I don't have my own message board either, because I'm sure it would be dead. Mr. Wahlberg has a message board, though, and whenever a new film comes out there are always little weasily guys who crawl out and post stupid messages and make general asses of themselves for all to see. I'm lucky to have Mark's Biggest Fan Lianne as my message board moderator, so I always have someone looking out for rogue messages and nasty discontent. It's the little things, right?

Everyone around here is acting insane with the purchasing of duct tape and blankets and supplies thinking a terrorist attack is imminent. Hello? Has anyone considered how many gaps there are in a house? Is this the poor man's version of the bomb shelter for the 2000's? Duct tape does NOT do anything to protect you. It is for ducts. Hence the name. I swear, even if they called it air conditioning tubing connecting adhesive, people would *still* be using it to repair their busted ass household items.

cnn breaking news

2003.02.12 12.28

-- North Korea has untested ballistic missile capable of reaching the U.S. West Coast, CIA director George Tenet says.

Well, isn't that special? At least I'm on the safer coast (for once).

work it (real good)

2003.02.11 18.02

I bought some headphones, blank hi-8mm videotapes, and computer screen cleaner from CVS. Total cost? $35. Wow. Expensive. I lost my last pair of headphones in a horrible seatbelt accident. I need more blank tapes in case I need to document anything interesting. My computer screen is filthy. It didn't do a good job. Screen still smudgy. My new laptop has 1 pixel that likes to fire red in the middle of the screen. A gentle tap makes it go away. Stupid pixel. I am plotting a trip to Pat's for dinner. I am coming up empty during my daily cycle of hitting QueenBeth.com, OktoberNight.com, Jerald.net and WilWheaton.net. Sniff. Looks like my best bet at getting into SNL on Saturday is to be in the stand-by line at 7 A.M. The problem is that this line starts forming on *Friday*. Eeek. However, the host for the show is Jennifer Garner. Mmmm. She pretty. This would be a lot easier if I were famous already. I need to get on the ball with that. My C++ programming and user interface development is seriously getting in the way of my celebrity interactions.

and the academy award goes to...

2003.02.11 6.59

Heard the nominees this morning. Got a lot of catching up to do as far as nominated films. Wanna see ''Adaptation'' next. My review for ''Confessions'' is as follows: A randy trip back to the past with Chuck Barris is made all the more interesting thanks to the revelation that he was a secret agent for the C.I.A. responsible for multiple hits. I went in thinking Julia Roberts was just going to be playing her normal femme fatale persona, but I didn't expect her to be licking someone's face prior to frenzied copulation. And speaking of copulation, this movie doesn't skimp around it. Even ''Boogie Nights'' seemed to do its best to avoid directly referencing sex except whenever absolutely necessary. A lot of the dialogue is free and refreshing and uninhibited. Job well done, Mr. Clooney! Now make another one. I'm in.

Tonight I am eagerly awaiting the next episode of ''The Osbournes'' to premiere. Sharon and Ozzy renew their vows. Ozzy kisses Marilyn Manson on the lips. The kids find out that their dad is circumsized. This is way better than Happy Days ever was.

Petsmart is tops for their de-smellization of Chew Chew. He smells like baby powder now. Nice. I may make this a new habit for him since the Petsmart is directly across from the aforementioned Loew's Multiplex in Cherry Hill, NJ. I get to see a movie and Chew Chew gets a bath in The Garden State.

Hoping to score some tickets to Saturday Day Night Live this Saturday Night. I am in the middle of coding a C++ ActiveX component, however, and it is turning my brain into jelly as I attempt to memorize all of the functions, puts, gets, and calls. I now know why C++ programmers are paid the big bucks. I am halfway done, however, so there is hope. I am still set to leave here at the end of April. My Cleopatra Gottlieb pinball machine is TILTing out after being on for a few minutes. Is this a message from the beyond, or is my apartment leaning to the side? Sticking to the topic is hard when you've got 40 pages of cyptic code memorized.

anomolies

2003.02.08 16.48

Sitting in the Loew's Cherry Hill multiplex waiting for ''Confessions of a Dangerous Mind'' to start. The pooch is at Petsmart awaiting a thorough scrubbing and I am hoping he will survive until my return in a couple hours. The pre-movie slideshow they have going now is showing me each slide for only 5 seconds a piece. The pace is maddening. I refuse to try to participate/read. My digestive system just enjoyed a huge Ultimate Nacho order from the consession stand. A little messy, but it did the trick. A wetnap was included (in the nachos just in case I missed it). Forgot to mention that this slide show has audio accompaniment. Some DJ Kool-Aid just welcomed me to "this bangin' theater." Ah, New Jersey. A huge crowd just sat in the row behind me and my sanctity is threatened. Bastards. Perhaps I will experience gaseous anomolies soon. One must dream. Movie starting. Bye.

branding

2003.02.03 7.20

Not wanting to deal with the events that transpired over the weekend, I got onto the plane Sunday evening clutching my copy of the Kurt Cobain Journal hardback. Very interesting to read his musings over the course of his band's eventual rise to stardom. So far after 70 pages his diatribe is growing somewhat stagnant. F*** sheep keeps coming up. Not so sure about that -- I'm hoping it has to do with rising above the masses while indulging your libido amongst them in the process. Perhaps once ''Nevermind'' is released in the chronology of the book his personal depth will resurface. Just in case you haven't seen it -- the book contains digital photographs of Kurdt's (his spelling) spiral notebook journals. They have been locked up since his death and have only recently been made public. I suspect there is an enormous amount of content that they withheld, for whatever reason. Either way, it is about as interesting as reading anyone's online blog can be. The fact that he used to leave his spiral notebooks out on the coffee table for anyone to read is interesting given that Kurt passed away before public blogs became a prevalent voice. I don't think this is Book Club reading material, but I'm enjoying the unusual format all the same.

As the plane began its approach toward Philly I heard someone a row behind me talking to another person about Houston as if he had become an expert on all things Texas during his weekend stay. This theory went out the window when he started talking about HP Invent. He was telling the person next to him, ''Compaq is now called HP Invent and I drove by their campus and those folks at HP Invent really know how to build a technological center!'' The girl he was talking to kept saying, ''HP What?'' and he was all, ''Invent! Invent!'' and she was all ''HP In.. vent?'' I mean, come on, obviously this guy doesn't get that ''Invent'' is the slogan for the company. I *really* wanted to turn around and ask him what he thought of my Nike Just Do It shoes and if he wanted to sample some fries I bought from the Burger King Have It Your Way store.

goodbye

2003.02.02 10.59

''High Flight'' by John Gillespie Magee, Jr

Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth 
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings; 
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth 
Of sun-split clouds...and done a hundred things 
You have not dreamed of...wheeled and soared and swung 
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there, 
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung 
My eager craft through footless halls of air. 
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue 
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace 
Where never lark, or even eagle flew. 
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod 
The high untrespassed sanctity of space 
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.