Annie - Don't Stop
Death Cab For Cutie - Narrow Stairs
Goldfrapp - Seventh Tree
Jem - Down To Earth
Juno Reator - Gods & Monsters
M83 - Saturdays=Youth
Mates Of State - Re-Arrange Us
Alanis Morissette - Flavors Of Entanglement
Leona Naess - Thirteens
Gary Numan - Jagged Edge
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Awesome.
So, how to benchmark this thing?
SuperPI? Forget it.
PCMark Vantage? Nuh-uh.
So what then?
Obvious, right? Besides, what fun are benchmarks where you just press start and the computer does it all by itself?
For this benchmark, quality was set to low, and no cheats were used (e.g. level skipping and going through walls).
First, my old P4 1.4GHz:
And the core i7 920 2.66GHz:
Thoughts:
The game is much more difficult to play on the core i7. It's really fast and you slide around like crazy. It doesn't help that on my fancy new $12 Logitech keyboard you can't press up arrow, left arrow, and the space bar at the same time.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
The 2008 World Series Of Poker Main Event Final Table - Finally
Today they finally play the final table of the 2008 World Series Of Poker main event. Usually of course they play it straight through in July, but this year they delayed the playing of the final table almost 4 months so that everyone doesn't already know who wins several months before it finally airs on TV. I used to always watch the WSOP coverage on ESPN, but I only watched a little of the 2006 WSOP coverage, and none of the 2007 or 2008 coverage. This is probably in part attributable to already knowing how the events play out from following the coverage online at Tao of Poker and other sites, but the main reason is that I'm simply not into poker as much I used to be. Still, I'll follow the coverage online today for sure, and probably watch the 2-hour highlights on ESPN Tuesday night.
Update (5:30 PM): It took 52 hands and over 4 hours to get the first elimination. This could be a long day. To pass the time in between updates I've been working on a sales script thing for DMI. It's been fun to work on, even though it's probably pretty dumb to read, assuming I'll even able to use it. I guess I should have made sure of that before I started.
Update (7:30 PM): 25 hands and two hours later there have been 2 more eliminations. I tested my sales script and I only had to change a few things. I had so much fun working on it, I don't care if no one likes it.
Update (5:30 PM): It took 52 hands and over 4 hours to get the first elimination. This could be a long day. To pass the time in between updates I've been working on a sales script thing for DMI. It's been fun to work on, even though it's probably pretty dumb to read, assuming I'll even able to use it. I guess I should have made sure of that before I started.
Update (7:30 PM): 25 hands and two hours later there have been 2 more eliminations. I tested my sales script and I only had to change a few things. I had so much fun working on it, I don't care if no one likes it.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Post-Election Speeches & Indecision 2008: America's Choice
President-Elect Obama's Victory Speech
Senator McCain's Concession Speech
Indecision 2008: America's Choice
Here are my favorite moments from last night's Indecision 2008: America's Choice special hour-long live broadcast:
3. Aasif Mandvi reports from Al Qaeda headquarters
2. Larry Wilmore and Wyatt Cenac take over
1. And the winner is...
The complete hour-long broadcast can be watched (or watched again in case, like me, when you watched it live you were a little distracted since you were also on your laptop flipping through 10 tabs of different sites' election coverage) here.
Senator McCain's Concession Speech
Indecision 2008: America's Choice
Here are my favorite moments from last night's Indecision 2008: America's Choice special hour-long live broadcast:
3. Aasif Mandvi reports from Al Qaeda headquarters
2. Larry Wilmore and Wyatt Cenac take over
1. And the winner is...
The complete hour-long broadcast can be watched (or watched again in case, like me, when you watched it live you were a little distracted since you were also on your laptop flipping through 10 tabs of different sites' election coverage) here.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
10:01 PM - "Game, set, match. Point."
Obama is the projected winner of the election.
Woohoo!
Congratulations, Senator Obama... or, I should say, Mr. President-Elect!
Woohoo!
Congratulations, Senator Obama... or, I should say, Mr. President-Elect!
8:20 PM - Fox News projects Ohio for Barack Obama
Flipping through the channels, I just saw that Fox News has projected Ohio for Barack Obama. A minute later MSNBC did as well. I think that's the election.
Monday, November 3, 2008
Election predictions
Over at HuffingtonPost.com they have compiled predictions for tomorrow's elections from 26 pundits. Only 1 of the pundits, Fred Barnes, predicts a McCain victory, with an electoral college count of 286 for McCain and 252 for Obama. These are the exact same electoral totals that Bush beat Kerry with in 2004, although I assume he has PA going to McCain, and Iowa, Colorado, and Nevada going to Obama. In any case, if he seriously expects this, I think he's delusional, even if by some miracle he turns out to be correct (similar to how a person who buys a Powerball ticket and honestly expects to win is delusional even if against 150,000,000 to 1 odds they end up winning). The next lowest predicted electoral college count for Obama is Charles Mahtesian who has Obama winning 311 to 227.
Here are my predictions.
Winner: Obama
Electoral College: Obama 349 McCain 189
Senate Seats: 57 Democrats 41 Republicans 2 Independents
House Seats: 260 Democrats 175 Republicans
The two states I'm most uncertain about for the presidential election are Missouri and North Carolina.
For the Senate, the best chance for the Democrats to reach 60 is probably Jim Martin in Georgia. The polls indicate that Saxby Chambliss has increased his lead over the last few days. I'd really like to see Martin win that one even if the Democrats don't hit 60, so I'll be watching for results from that one. I'd also really like to see Kay Hagan trounce Elizabeth Dole in North Carolina. The latest poll numbers have Hagan leading by 5 points, her largest margin since polling began in May. But as with all the races, it's not over until all the votes are counted.
Tomorrow I think I'll stop at the store and get a bottle of Crown Royal. If things go as unexpected, I'll have a drink or two to celebrate. If not, I'll finish the bottle.
Here are my predictions.
Winner: Obama
Electoral College: Obama 349 McCain 189
Senate Seats: 57 Democrats 41 Republicans 2 Independents
House Seats: 260 Democrats 175 Republicans
The two states I'm most uncertain about for the presidential election are Missouri and North Carolina.
For the Senate, the best chance for the Democrats to reach 60 is probably Jim Martin in Georgia. The polls indicate that Saxby Chambliss has increased his lead over the last few days. I'd really like to see Martin win that one even if the Democrats don't hit 60, so I'll be watching for results from that one. I'd also really like to see Kay Hagan trounce Elizabeth Dole in North Carolina. The latest poll numbers have Hagan leading by 5 points, her largest margin since polling began in May. But as with all the races, it's not over until all the votes are counted.
Tomorrow I think I'll stop at the store and get a bottle of Crown Royal. If things go as unexpected, I'll have a drink or two to celebrate. If not, I'll finish the bottle.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
My thoughts on The Mist (2007)
1. What a bleak ass movie.
2. The song at the end, The Host Of Seraphim by Dead Can Dance, was awesome.
3. It would be cool if they did a movie following things from the military's perspective (similar to the rumor for what was being considered for a sequel to Cloverfield). Or even better, the people who own the rights to Half-Life could get their act together and make that into a movie.
2. The song at the end, The Host Of Seraphim by Dead Can Dance, was awesome.
3. It would be cool if they did a movie following things from the military's perspective (similar to the rumor for what was being considered for a sequel to Cloverfield). Or even better, the people who own the rights to Half-Life could get their act together and make that into a movie.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Chuck Versus Tom Sawyer
This was the show's best episode so far. All the Jeff stuff was hilarious, the Missile Command stuff was great, and I also really liked the way they juxtaposed Jeff looking back at his life and Chuck looking ahead.
The only criticism I have is that they got what a kill screen is wrong, as they treated it like a regular video game ending, rather than the game breaking down because of hardware or software limitations.
Also, Tony Hale didn't get too much to do in this episode, so I was happy to see that he'll be back as the new assistant regional manager.
The only criticism I have is that they got what a kill screen is wrong, as they treated it like a regular video game ending, rather than the game breaking down because of hardware or software limitations.
Also, Tony Hale didn't get too much to do in this episode, so I was happy to see that he'll be back as the new assistant regional manager.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Kookaburra Licorice
Ok, so I've wanted to try Kookaburra Licorice for quite awhile, ever since Mindy Kaling blogged about it over a year ago. Well, with her recently restarting her blog again, I figured that now is a good as time as any to finally try it, what with the economy collapsing and all. So I spent several years' candy budget to get a few tubs of both the strawberry and black licorice from Kookaburra's website. A few days later I got it from UPS.
My first impression of the licorice was not good. The first piece I tried was tough, and it had basically no flavor until you chewed on it for almost 10 seconds, at which point a good strawberry flavor finally revealed itself. I tried a few more pieces and they were the same.
The next night I tried another piece, and it was like a whole new candy. It was not tough at all, and the strawberry flavor was there from the first bite. What happened was that when I first tried the candy the day before it was still cold from sitting in the delivery truck and waiting outside. At room temperature it is much, much better. The flavor reminds me a lot of strawberry gushers, without the gush, obviously, which I haven't eaten in years and years, but still have vivid and fond memories of eating while playing WCW Wrestling for NES.
My first impression of the licorice was not good. The first piece I tried was tough, and it had basically no flavor until you chewed on it for almost 10 seconds, at which point a good strawberry flavor finally revealed itself. I tried a few more pieces and they were the same.
The next night I tried another piece, and it was like a whole new candy. It was not tough at all, and the strawberry flavor was there from the first bite. What happened was that when I first tried the candy the day before it was still cold from sitting in the delivery truck and waiting outside. At room temperature it is much, much better. The flavor reminds me a lot of strawberry gushers, without the gush, obviously, which I haven't eaten in years and years, but still have vivid and fond memories of eating while playing WCW Wrestling for NES.
Bill the bomber is a dud
Electoral-vote.com reports that Rasmussen Reports recently asked questions about William Ayers in their polling, and found that Palin & McCain's guilt by [weak] association strategy against Obama is a miserable failure:
While the unprecedented smear campaign against Obama primarily by Palin and also to some extent McCain should never have occurred in the first place because it's dishonest, dishonorable, and just plain ridiculous, now there's proof that it's bad politics, too.
While McCain recently repudiated a woman at a rally in Minnesota about Obama, saying to her, "No, ma'am, he's a decent family man, a citizen, who I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues," he and Palin have yet to do so to a national audience. Since it doesn't seem likely that they'll do so before election day, it is important that both he, and to an even greater extent Palin, very clearly reject and repudiate the smears they've made. I assume they'll try to pass the blame it on the supporters for connecting the dots of their statements, similar to the way Bush acted sheepish several years ago when he came out and said, "This administration never said that the 9/11 attacks were orchestrated between Saddam and al Qaeda," despite the numerous insinuations of exactly that that he and others in his administration made in their campaign for war.
Rasmussen Poll on William Ayers
With the McCain campaign talking about 1960s radical William Ayers all the time, Rasmussen ran a poll to see what people think about him. Not surprisingly most people have an unfavorable view of Ayers that cuts across gender, age, ideology, income, race, education, and everything else. Ayers is not going to win the camper-of-the-week award. However, a more interesting question is whether all this talk of Ayers helps or hurts the McCain campaign. Republicans think it helps the campaign by 2 to 1 while Democrats think it hurts McCain's campaign by 8 to 1. Independents thinks it hurts by nearly 2 to 1. In a similar vein, 47% of self-identifying conservatives thinks it helps the campaign vs. 29% think it hurts. Among liberals the numbers are 7% and 79%. Among moderates 20% think it helps and 58% think it hurts. Thus among moderates, talk of Ayers hurts McCain by nearly 3 to 1. There is no correlation with income or education. So why does McCain keep harping on this point? Is it trying to solidify his base and doesn't give a hoot about the independents? The numbers show this is a terrible strategy as it plays to the people who are already going to vote for him but it works badly with the critical independents he desperately needs. Could it be that Steve Schmidt has drunk his own Kool-Aid and really and truly believes that talking about Ayers helps him? Surely he has the same numbers Rasmussen does. Sometimes ideology gets in the way of running an effective campaign.
While the unprecedented smear campaign against Obama primarily by Palin and also to some extent McCain should never have occurred in the first place because it's dishonest, dishonorable, and just plain ridiculous, now there's proof that it's bad politics, too.
While McCain recently repudiated a woman at a rally in Minnesota about Obama, saying to her, "No, ma'am, he's a decent family man, a citizen, who I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues," he and Palin have yet to do so to a national audience. Since it doesn't seem likely that they'll do so before election day, it is important that both he, and to an even greater extent Palin, very clearly reject and repudiate the smears they've made. I assume they'll try to pass the blame it on the supporters for connecting the dots of their statements, similar to the way Bush acted sheepish several years ago when he came out and said, "This administration never said that the 9/11 attacks were orchestrated between Saddam and al Qaeda," despite the numerous insinuations of exactly that that he and others in his administration made in their campaign for war.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
"A referendum on reality"
On Tuesday John Hodgman's new book More Information Than You Require was released. It's a follow-up (the second in a trilogy) to his hilarious 2005 book The Areas Of My Expertise. Over the last week he's been doing some publicity for the book and so far it's been highly entertaining.
In a fascinating interview posted yesterday at The A.V. Club, he laments that it was Stephen Colbert and not himself who coined the word 'truthiness'. Well, he should feel better since during his recent appearance on The Rachel Maddow Show he perfectly summed up this year's presidential election in 4 words: "A referendum on reality." Video of the interview:
After almost 4 months since his last appearance on The Daily Show as the resident expert, he appeared on the show Monday to promote his book and also deconstruct the guest promoting a book interview. Video:
While this segment was my favorite part of Monday's episode of The Daily Show, the entire episode was stellar. Here's a streaming version of the entire episode.
I got my copy of the book today, but I haven't yet started it. If it's half as entertaining and interesting as the publicity he's doing for it, it will easily be one of the best books of the year.
In a fascinating interview posted yesterday at The A.V. Club, he laments that it was Stephen Colbert and not himself who coined the word 'truthiness'. Well, he should feel better since during his recent appearance on The Rachel Maddow Show he perfectly summed up this year's presidential election in 4 words: "A referendum on reality." Video of the interview:
After almost 4 months since his last appearance on The Daily Show as the resident expert, he appeared on the show Monday to promote his book and also deconstruct the guest promoting a book interview. Video:
While this segment was my favorite part of Monday's episode of The Daily Show, the entire episode was stellar. Here's a streaming version of the entire episode.
I got my copy of the book today, but I haven't yet started it. If it's half as entertaining and interesting as the publicity he's doing for it, it will easily be one of the best books of the year.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Manipulation in prediction market for president
Over the past month irregularities in the InTrade prediction market for president have been reported on by multiple sources. As far as I know it was first written about by Nate Silver on September 24 at FiveThirtyEight.com (if you've never been there before here's fair warning that it's pretty addictive), here:
Intrade Betting is Suspicious by Nate Silver
Well these suspicions have now been confirmed by InTrade CEO John Delaney:
Price Variances on Intrade Political Markets by John Delaney
From the message:
Interesting stuff, but in hindsight not all that surprising. I'm just glad that no one in the media was naive enough to report the manipulated numbers as meaningful.
Oh, wait.
Intrade Betting is Suspicious by Nate Silver
Well these suspicions have now been confirmed by InTrade CEO John Delaney:
Price Variances on Intrade Political Markets by John Delaney
From the message:
The trading that occurred during these times may be summarised as follows...
1. Multiple large volume Buy orders placed and matched rapidly caused the McCain market to move significantly above the previously prevailing market price by up to 10 pts.
2. Multiple large volume Sell orders placed and matched rapidly caused the Obama market to move significantly below the previously prevailing market price by up to 9 pts.
3. The market prices of the contracts then seemed to represent discrepancies between overlapping Intrade markets, and also between Intrade markets and similar markets on other platforms for some time thereafter.
Interesting stuff, but in hindsight not all that surprising. I'm just glad that no one in the media was naive enough to report the manipulated numbers as meaningful.
Oh, wait.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Good and bad emails to start the day
Last Monday my day got off to a pretty good start when I checked my email and got a news alert message from the New York Times that Paul Krugman had won the Nobel Prize in economics. While I'm not that familiar with Krugman's academic economic work, I'm a huge fan of his Times column, to the point that a few years ago I subscribed to the ill-fated Times Select for a year. I rationalized this that with 2 columns a week it was about $0.50 a column, which seemed reasonable, plus the added value of the other columnists and access to the Times archives, which I remember using a lot during my subscription, although I've rarely used it since. One recent column that I particularly enjoyed was this one from a couple weeks ago:
Health Care Destruction by Paul Krugman
Krugman's recent popular book The Conscience of a Liberal is incredibly illuminating about the current political landscape, how we got here over the last 70 years or so, and where we might and should go from here. Definitely one of the better political books I've read. And finally I'd be remiss if I didn't post this hilarious column after Krugman won the Nobel:
Krugman Could Turn into Massive Douchebag, Colleagues Fear by Andy Borowitz
Ok, so that was a good email to start the day. This morning I got a bad one:
God. Damn. It.
Hooverphonic is one of my 5 favorite current bands, and this news is the worst. I have no problem with Arnaert pursuing her solo career, but why couldn't she continue singing for Hooverphonic as well?
Hooverphonic's first album, A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular, which featured singer Liesje Sadonius (I wonder if they've considered bringing her back...), was very good and shows that they can make great music without Arnaert, but every one of Hooverphonic's subsequent 6 albums (5 studio and 1 acoustic) with Arnaert have been better. I'm not at all optimistic that they can find another singer nearly as good as Arnaert, and while I guess a mass email to their fans might turn up some possibilities, although I'm sure they're searching through a variety of ways, it does seem kind of unseemly considering their accomplishments. And the idea of Hooverphonic having a male singer is nothing short of scary.
As far as Arnaert's solo career goes, I don't really know what to expect. She obviously has an amazing voice, but since I can only assume she's leaving Hooverphonic in order to do a different style of music, then who knows. The 2 non-Hooverphonic songs I've heard from her are hit and miss: Strange Lit Star with Ozark Henry is fantastic, but Comin' Back For More with New Cool Collective is unimpressive, because I don't care for the musical style.
Considering how great a match Hooverphonic with Arnaert is, and also Arnaert with Hooverphonic is, unless they've had a big falling out or something, I hope that they'll find a way that Arnaert can do her solo stuff and still be able to sing for Hooverphonic's albums.
---------
I was just getting ready to post this and I got another good email this morning:
Not a total surprise like the other two messages, but welcome news nonetheless.
Health Care Destruction by Paul Krugman
Krugman's recent popular book The Conscience of a Liberal is incredibly illuminating about the current political landscape, how we got here over the last 70 years or so, and where we might and should go from here. Definitely one of the better political books I've read. And finally I'd be remiss if I didn't post this hilarious column after Krugman won the Nobel:
Krugman Could Turn into Massive Douchebag, Colleagues Fear by Andy Borowitz
Ok, so that was a good email to start the day. This morning I got a bad one:
Hooverphonic newsletter
Hooverphonic is sad to announce you that Geike will leave the band by the end of 2008.
Alex and Raymond will definitely go on with Hooverphonic!
They are therefore looking for a new singer (male or female).
If you're interested, please send us your updated CV, as well as an MP3 and a recent picture of yourself
Candidates do not necessarily have to come from Belgium, we are open to cross-border collaborations.
God. Damn. It.
Hooverphonic is one of my 5 favorite current bands, and this news is the worst. I have no problem with Arnaert pursuing her solo career, but why couldn't she continue singing for Hooverphonic as well?
Hooverphonic's first album, A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular, which featured singer Liesje Sadonius (I wonder if they've considered bringing her back...), was very good and shows that they can make great music without Arnaert, but every one of Hooverphonic's subsequent 6 albums (5 studio and 1 acoustic) with Arnaert have been better. I'm not at all optimistic that they can find another singer nearly as good as Arnaert, and while I guess a mass email to their fans might turn up some possibilities, although I'm sure they're searching through a variety of ways, it does seem kind of unseemly considering their accomplishments. And the idea of Hooverphonic having a male singer is nothing short of scary.
As far as Arnaert's solo career goes, I don't really know what to expect. She obviously has an amazing voice, but since I can only assume she's leaving Hooverphonic in order to do a different style of music, then who knows. The 2 non-Hooverphonic songs I've heard from her are hit and miss: Strange Lit Star with Ozark Henry is fantastic, but Comin' Back For More with New Cool Collective is unimpressive, because I don't care for the musical style.
Considering how great a match Hooverphonic with Arnaert is, and also Arnaert with Hooverphonic is, unless they've had a big falling out or something, I hope that they'll find a way that Arnaert can do her solo stuff and still be able to sing for Hooverphonic's albums.
---------
I was just getting ready to post this and I got another good email this morning:
Breaking News Alert
The New York Times
Sunday, October 19, 2008 -- 9:25 AM ET
-----
Former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell Endorses Obama
In an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday, former
Secretary of State Colin Powell endorsed Senator Barack Obama
for president.
Not a total surprise like the other two messages, but welcome news nonetheless.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
The Craziest Thing
The other day I posted that even though it's been 6 months since the last update, I'd keep my subscription to the Things I've Bought That I Love blog in case Mindy Kaling decides to ever update it again. Well, today I deleted the subscription. Why? Because the blog is back is now at a new address - ThingsIBoughtThatILove.com, and it also has a new update.
The first new post is awesome, even though like usual I'm not interested in the product written about, which is some hand soap. She mentions not liking Listerine as a kid, but her parents made her rinse with it. Whenever I rinse with Listerine I always mix it half and half with water. At half strength it's barely irritating at all, so you can easily rinse for a minute. I would think that's about as good as rinsing at full strength for 30 seconds, but I don't know. At least it doesn't turn your teeth brown.
The first new post is awesome, even though like usual I'm not interested in the product written about, which is some hand soap. She mentions not liking Listerine as a kid, but her parents made her rinse with it. Whenever I rinse with Listerine I always mix it half and half with water. At half strength it's barely irritating at all, so you can easily rinse for a minute. I would think that's about as good as rinsing at full strength for 30 seconds, but I don't know. At least it doesn't turn your teeth brown.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Blogs & Stuff
It's now been 6 months since the last update to Mindy Kaling's Things I've Bought That I Love blog. It used to be updated pretty regularly, but not anymore. Over the whole time I read the blog, I think there was only 1 thing she ever blogged about that I was actually interested in, Kookaburra Licorice. That was over a year ago and I still haven't gotten around to trying it yet. But even though I was rarely interested in the things she was writing about, her writing was always very entertaining and made things I wouldn't normally be interested in at all interested enough to read about. But I'm leaving my Google Reader subscription in case she ever decides to start it up again.
Speaking of Google Reader, the other day I unsubscribed from MetaFilter & Penny Arcade. MetaFilter has probably 20 new items a day and I only found probably 1 item a week interesting enough to click on. I think I might enjoy Penny Arcade if I was more into video games, but I'm not.
Back to Things I've Bought That I Love, I got an idea for a kind of copycat blog that I could start that wouldn't be nearly as interesting or well written (somewhere around 1/∞ for both):
Food I've Bought That I Hate But Eat Anyway Since I Don't Want It To Go To Waste
A few possible blog topics:
1. Town House Light Buttery Crackers - Wheat
2. Santitas white corn tortilla chips (or for that matter probably just about any other brand of tortilla chip, white or yellow corn)
3. Sunflower seeds
4. Wild Oats vanilla creme sandwich cookies (Normally these are pretty good, but not during the time period when Wild Oats was eliminating trans fats from all their foods, and I got a couple packages with some experimental replacement that had gone rancid before I had even opened the package, although at the time I didn't know that's why they were so awful, and I ate half the package before figuring it out.)
Fascinating, right? Actually, I have a hard time imagining a sincere blog that's more unappealing. Well, except this one.
Speaking of Google Reader, the other day I unsubscribed from MetaFilter & Penny Arcade. MetaFilter has probably 20 new items a day and I only found probably 1 item a week interesting enough to click on. I think I might enjoy Penny Arcade if I was more into video games, but I'm not.
Back to Things I've Bought That I Love, I got an idea for a kind of copycat blog that I could start that wouldn't be nearly as interesting or well written (somewhere around 1/∞ for both):
Food I've Bought That I Hate But Eat Anyway Since I Don't Want It To Go To Waste
A few possible blog topics:
1. Town House Light Buttery Crackers - Wheat
2. Santitas white corn tortilla chips (or for that matter probably just about any other brand of tortilla chip, white or yellow corn)
3. Sunflower seeds
4. Wild Oats vanilla creme sandwich cookies (Normally these are pretty good, but not during the time period when Wild Oats was eliminating trans fats from all their foods, and I got a couple packages with some experimental replacement that had gone rancid before I had even opened the package, although at the time I didn't know that's why they were so awful, and I ate half the package before figuring it out.)
Fascinating, right? Actually, I have a hard time imagining a sincere blog that's more unappealing. Well, except this one.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Superpoop
Over the past several years Toothpaste For Dinner and Married To The Sea have been two of my favorite webcomics. I was very surprised when a couple weeks ago I found out that the author of those two comics has had a third webcomic since 2006, Superpoop. A few favorites (Warning: Some of these are NSFW):
03-27-08 - Kids Look Away
04-05-08 - Chicken Wing
04-10-08 - Rob Zombie Ribs
07-21-08 - Painter Of Balls
09-25-08 - American Financial System
09-26-08 - Abstinence Only State
03-27-08 - Kids Look Away
04-05-08 - Chicken Wing
04-10-08 - Rob Zombie Ribs
07-21-08 - Painter Of Balls
09-25-08 - American Financial System
09-26-08 - Abstinence Only State
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Shirley Manson - Samson And Delilah
As I noted in my previous post, last night's season premiere of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles featured an awesome cover of "Samson And Delilah" sung by Shirley Manson.
As far as I know the song is not available commercially anywhere, so I made an mp3 of the song directly from the episode. The mp3 includes some sound effects from the episode, most of which are near the end of the song, so it's not perfect.
While looking for the song last night, I found a lot of posts from people asking when the song was going to be available. It reminds me of the situation with Bear McCreary (who also produced this song) & BT4's version of "All Along The Watchtower" from the Season 3 finale of Battlestar Galactica. The episode aired in March, but the soundtrack wasn't released until October. The wait for the official release was made easier with a ripped from the episode version of the song, which included a fair amount of dialogue. As far as I know these postings of the episode version of the song didn't induce the ire of those who made it, so I've decided to post a download link for the episode version of "Samson And Delilah" by Shirley Manson.
I will remove the link as soon as the song is commercially available, which hopefully is very soon, or as soon as I hear that it's not ok to post it here like this. Anyway, here's the download link:
Shirley Manson - Samson And Delilah (Rapidshare)
As far as I know the song is not available commercially anywhere, so I made an mp3 of the song directly from the episode. The mp3 includes some sound effects from the episode, most of which are near the end of the song, so it's not perfect.
While looking for the song last night, I found a lot of posts from people asking when the song was going to be available. It reminds me of the situation with Bear McCreary (who also produced this song) & BT4's version of "All Along The Watchtower" from the Season 3 finale of Battlestar Galactica. The episode aired in March, but the soundtrack wasn't released until October. The wait for the official release was made easier with a ripped from the episode version of the song, which included a fair amount of dialogue. As far as I know these postings of the episode version of the song didn't induce the ire of those who made it, so I've decided to post a download link for the episode version of "Samson And Delilah" by Shirley Manson.
I will remove the link as soon as the song is commercially available, which hopefully is very soon, or as soon as I hear that it's not ok to post it here like this. Anyway, here's the download link:
Shirley Manson - Samson And Delilah (Rapidshare)
Monday, September 8, 2008
Tonight's season premiere of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
Season 1 of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles was a disappointment overall in that while it had some good moments, it never seemed to reach its potential.
Tonight's season 2 premiere continued this pattern.
*Spoilers ahead.*
The first 5 minutes or so of the episode was probably the best action sequence the show's ever done, over which played a beautiful rendition of "Samson & Delilah" sung by Shirley Manson. It's already been over 3 years since Garbage's last album (yikes!), so it was really nice to hear her singing again.
This show is definitely at its best during the action sequences, and I would love it if the producers of the show took a cue from this old xkcd comic and just made every episode one long action sequence.
But only 15 minutes or so of the episode was action, and the rest ranged from OK to ridiculous. In the bathroom scene at the end, at first I thought that the T-1000 had morphed into the urinal to spy on her employees or something (could it still hear in the shape of a urinal?), but watching the scene again I was relieved to see that after it reformed the urinal was still there so it just passed through the wall.
eta: After watching this scene a third time, it looks like the T-1000 was indeed in the bathroom eavesdropping on the two guys, in the form of a thin film spread over the urinal and wall. WTF? Why would a T-1000 spy on a dissenter and then when he calls her a name get angry and kill him? Isn't her mission much more important than her AI team leader, who's presumably one of the best in the world at what he does, not liking a managerial decision she made?
One thing that puzzles me is that last season I thought the Turk was the big computer in that guy's closet. But this season it looks like a small hard drive array with 4 hard drives, presumably meaning the Turk is just software. By far the most ridiculous thing in the episode was when John successefully fixed Cameron's neural net processor using a knife and a rag.
After season 1 ended, I told myself that if the show didn't get better in the first few episodes of season 2 I'd stop watching it. The season 2 premiere didn't really change this, although I did get my hopes up a little bit after the awesome beginning. If every episode has an awesome sequence like that, and/or features a song sung by Shirley Manson, then I'll keep watching for sure, but that seems unlikely. We'll see.
Tonight's season 2 premiere continued this pattern.
*Spoilers ahead.*
The first 5 minutes or so of the episode was probably the best action sequence the show's ever done, over which played a beautiful rendition of "Samson & Delilah" sung by Shirley Manson. It's already been over 3 years since Garbage's last album (yikes!), so it was really nice to hear her singing again.
This show is definitely at its best during the action sequences, and I would love it if the producers of the show took a cue from this old xkcd comic and just made every episode one long action sequence.
But only 15 minutes or so of the episode was action, and the rest ranged from OK to ridiculous. In the bathroom scene at the end, at first I thought that the T-1000 had morphed into the urinal to spy on her employees or something (could it still hear in the shape of a urinal?), but watching the scene again I was relieved to see that after it reformed the urinal was still there so it just passed through the wall.
eta: After watching this scene a third time, it looks like the T-1000 was indeed in the bathroom eavesdropping on the two guys, in the form of a thin film spread over the urinal and wall. WTF? Why would a T-1000 spy on a dissenter and then when he calls her a name get angry and kill him? Isn't her mission much more important than her AI team leader, who's presumably one of the best in the world at what he does, not liking a managerial decision she made?
One thing that puzzles me is that last season I thought the Turk was the big computer in that guy's closet. But this season it looks like a small hard drive array with 4 hard drives, presumably meaning the Turk is just software. By far the most ridiculous thing in the episode was when John successefully fixed Cameron's neural net processor using a knife and a rag.
After season 1 ended, I told myself that if the show didn't get better in the first few episodes of season 2 I'd stop watching it. The season 2 premiere didn't really change this, although I did get my hopes up a little bit after the awesome beginning. If every episode has an awesome sequence like that, and/or features a song sung by Shirley Manson, then I'll keep watching for sure, but that seems unlikely. We'll see.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Google Chrome: First Impressions
1. It seems like it makes light use of system resources - at first. Whereas my Firefox 3 with 9 add-ons uses about 60MB RAM on open, and 100MB after using it for a while, Google Chrome starts at about 20 MB and goes to about 40 MB after browsing awhile. But then I noticed that, with just 1 Chrome window open, in Task Manager under processes it has 4 instances of chrome.exe listed, using a total of about 92MB currently. So 8MB less than my tricked out Firefox 3, while offering much less functionality.
2. I love how you can drag a tab to make a new browser window. I tried doing this with Firefox and it merely makes a shortcut icon to that page. Hopefully the Mozilla team makes this feature available in a future version of Firefox.
3. The way the default home page / new tab page displays thumbnails of your most visited sites seems really cool. This feature seems a lot less cool, though, after you realize the thumbnails are screenshots of the pages when you last visited them, and are not updated unless you visit them again.
4. There aren't really any options for customizing the user interface, and the arrangement of the bookmarks toolbar, address bar, tab row, and icons. I don't like how the tab row is the top thing, then the address bar, then the bookmark toolbar at the bottom. In fact, this is the exact opposite order that I use in Firefox 3. The one exception to this lack of customizability is the "other bookmarks" button, which you can choose to hide if you want. I see no reason why you'd want to hide this unless you have all your bookmarks on the toolbar, since without the button there's no way to access the rest of your bookmarks. When you click the other bookmarks button, you get a scrollable list, with no option to change it to the more useful sidebar Firefox (and even IE7 & IE8) uses.
5. If you click the tool icon you can view your history and downloads, both of which open in their own tab. Again, the sidebar Firefox uses for viewing your history, and the small separate window for your downloads is much more convenient since you can view a web page at the same time.
6. About the memory usage, I just found that if you right click above the tabs, one of the options is task manager, which turns out to be a report on Chrome's memory usage, including each process. It lists 5 processes now, confirmed with Windows task manager: 1 for the browser, 1 for Shockwave, and 3 for tabs. It also lists a summary of Firefox 3's memory usage (I'm writing this in Firefox), which is currently using a nearly identical amount of RAM: 76,303k for Chrome, 76,204k for Firefox. That's actually pretty cool that it has a separate process for the browser and each tab and plugin. That way if one of them crashes, you don't lose the whole shebang.
7. The lack of add-ons is a dealbreaker. After using Firefox for the past few years, and the luxury of add-ons existing for just about anything you'd want your browser to do, I don't think I could ever switch to a browser without similar options. This is only made worse by Chrome's lack of built-in user interface customization options.
Overall, Google Chrome is disappointing. It seems like it's somewhere inbetween Internet Explorer and Firefox, and a lot closer to the IE side. I normally use Firefox for just about all my browsing, and usually only use IE to get updates to XP, so I don't think I'd ever have a reason to use Chrome.
2. I love how you can drag a tab to make a new browser window. I tried doing this with Firefox and it merely makes a shortcut icon to that page. Hopefully the Mozilla team makes this feature available in a future version of Firefox.
3. The way the default home page / new tab page displays thumbnails of your most visited sites seems really cool. This feature seems a lot less cool, though, after you realize the thumbnails are screenshots of the pages when you last visited them, and are not updated unless you visit them again.
4. There aren't really any options for customizing the user interface, and the arrangement of the bookmarks toolbar, address bar, tab row, and icons. I don't like how the tab row is the top thing, then the address bar, then the bookmark toolbar at the bottom. In fact, this is the exact opposite order that I use in Firefox 3. The one exception to this lack of customizability is the "other bookmarks" button, which you can choose to hide if you want. I see no reason why you'd want to hide this unless you have all your bookmarks on the toolbar, since without the button there's no way to access the rest of your bookmarks. When you click the other bookmarks button, you get a scrollable list, with no option to change it to the more useful sidebar Firefox (and even IE7 & IE8) uses.
5. If you click the tool icon you can view your history and downloads, both of which open in their own tab. Again, the sidebar Firefox uses for viewing your history, and the small separate window for your downloads is much more convenient since you can view a web page at the same time.
6. About the memory usage, I just found that if you right click above the tabs, one of the options is task manager, which turns out to be a report on Chrome's memory usage, including each process. It lists 5 processes now, confirmed with Windows task manager: 1 for the browser, 1 for Shockwave, and 3 for tabs. It also lists a summary of Firefox 3's memory usage (I'm writing this in Firefox), which is currently using a nearly identical amount of RAM: 76,303k for Chrome, 76,204k for Firefox. That's actually pretty cool that it has a separate process for the browser and each tab and plugin. That way if one of them crashes, you don't lose the whole shebang.
7. The lack of add-ons is a dealbreaker. After using Firefox for the past few years, and the luxury of add-ons existing for just about anything you'd want your browser to do, I don't think I could ever switch to a browser without similar options. This is only made worse by Chrome's lack of built-in user interface customization options.
Overall, Google Chrome is disappointing. It seems like it's somewhere inbetween Internet Explorer and Firefox, and a lot closer to the IE side. I normally use Firefox for just about all my browsing, and usually only use IE to get updates to XP, so I don't think I'd ever have a reason to use Chrome.
Friday, August 29, 2008
McSweeney's Lists FTW
The lists that are posted most Fridays on McSweeney's are usually pretty good. The three lists posted today are no exception, and are filled with all kinds of win.
Three Things I'd Take to a Desert Island. BY MIKE SACKS
Jokes I Came Up With While Recovering From Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus. BY OLIVIA WALCH
Footnotes, Endnotes, and Parentheticals That Cost Me Marks on My Thesis. BY MIKE BAYLIS
Three Things I'd Take to a Desert Island. BY MIKE SACKS
Jokes I Came Up With While Recovering From Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus. BY OLIVIA WALCH
Footnotes, Endnotes, and Parentheticals That Cost Me Marks on My Thesis. BY MIKE BAYLIS
Best speeches of the 2008 Democratic National Convention
Here are my favorites of the ones I've watched.
5) Michelle Obama
4) Hillary Clinton
3) Bill Clinton
2) John Kerry
1) Barack Obama
5) Michelle Obama
4) Hillary Clinton
3) Bill Clinton
2) John Kerry
1) Barack Obama
Another fun game
SongBlitz
Saw this on digg the other day. I didn't have time to try it right away, but when I did I was surprised by how good (i.e., addictive) it is. I remember the description said it was a music game, so I thought maybe it was a rhythm flash game or something. Instead it's a song identification game. You can choose from several different genres (or all of them together, which is a lot easier since it's pretty obvious what it is if there's a jazz song and only one jazz album to choose from) and difficulty levels. Besides being a good challenge, it's also a fun way to discover great new music. Playing it last night I found one awesome band I'd never heard before: Stars.
Saw this on digg the other day. I didn't have time to try it right away, but when I did I was surprised by how good (i.e., addictive) it is. I remember the description said it was a music game, so I thought maybe it was a rhythm flash game or something. Instead it's a song identification game. You can choose from several different genres (or all of them together, which is a lot easier since it's pretty obvious what it is if there's a jazz song and only one jazz album to choose from) and difficulty levels. Besides being a good challenge, it's also a fun way to discover great new music. Playing it last night I found one awesome band I'd never heard before: Stars.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
More addictive than Geometry Wars
DharmaWantsYou.com has now been updated with the first test. While ridiculously simple, it's also insanely addictive.
I played it for a couple hours tonight and my best score was an 84. I took a break and now I can't log back in. It's driving me crazy. I found a message board where they were talking about it, and the highest score I saw posted was an 88, so that's my goal.
I played it for a couple hours tonight and my best score was an 84. I took a break and now I can't log back in. It's driving me crazy. I found a message board where they were talking about it, and the highest score I saw posted was an 88, so that's my goal.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
DMI Charity Fundraiser Pt. 2
Clockwise, regional manager of the Ypsilanti branch and celebrated filmmaker, has made another awesome video. Behold.
The Ypsilanti branch is raising money for the St. Jude Children's Hospital Foundation. Here is their link:
As I previously posted, the main page DMI charities page is located here:
Dunder Mifflin Infinity / United Way Summer Fundraiser
The Ypsilanti branch is raising money for the St. Jude Children's Hospital Foundation. Here is their link:
As I previously posted, the main page DMI charities page is located here:
Dunder Mifflin Infinity / United Way Summer Fundraiser
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
DMI Charity Fundraiser
At Dunder Mifflin Infinity all the branches are currently doing a fundraiser for one of these ten different charities:
The American Heart Association
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
The Susan G. Komen Foundation
UNICEF
Conservation International
Habitat for Humanity
Global Fund for Women
AIDS Research Alliance
The Humane Society
The Lymphoma Research Foundation
My branch, Corner Brook, NL, is raising money for Conservation International. In case anyone would like to donate to it (I'm such a great pitchman!), here is the link:
If you would also / instead like to give to one of the other charities, here is the main charities page:
Dunder Mifflin Infinity / United Way Summer Fundraiser
The American Heart Association
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
The Susan G. Komen Foundation
UNICEF
Conservation International
Habitat for Humanity
Global Fund for Women
AIDS Research Alliance
The Humane Society
The Lymphoma Research Foundation
My branch, Corner Brook, NL, is raising money for Conservation International. In case anyone would like to donate to it (I'm such a great pitchman!), here is the link:
If you would also / instead like to give to one of the other charities, here is the main charities page:
Dunder Mifflin Infinity / United Way Summer Fundraiser
The Gods Must Be Crazy
I must have watched this movie over a dozen times as a kid. I recently watched it again for the first time in probably 15 years or more. I thought it was hilarious, although I'm not sure how much of my opinion of it was my reaction to it now, or the memories of how much I enjoyed it watching it all those times years ago. Watching it now, a few scenes that I probably didn't pay attention to before were disturbing now, such as when the male children picked up the machine guns and fired back at the rebels. Also, I had a new appreciation for how the movie inverted how we usually think of civilized vs. "uncivilized" peoples.
Cake Wrecks
I have never baked a cake, or baked anything for that matter, in my life.
However, that has not stopped a new blog called Cake Wrecks from quickly becoming one of the blogs I most look forward to seeing has been updated in Google Reader.
From the cakes that are well done but based on bad ideas, to the poorly done ones based on good ideas, to, my favorite, the horribly done ones based on horrible ideas, the various cakes are hilarious, disgusting, and everything inbetween.
Tip: Do not read the blog while drinking a beverage or before you eat.
However, that has not stopped a new blog called Cake Wrecks from quickly becoming one of the blogs I most look forward to seeing has been updated in Google Reader.
From the cakes that are well done but based on bad ideas, to the poorly done ones based on good ideas, to, my favorite, the horribly done ones based on horrible ideas, the various cakes are hilarious, disgusting, and everything inbetween.
Tip: Do not read the blog while drinking a beverage or before you eat.
Drug ads, migraines, and Oreo cookies
Drug Ads
A couple weeks ago while making dinner a prescription drug advertisement aired and I heard something I don't remember ever hearing before. It said, "Ask your prescriber" if such and such drug is right for you. Not "your doctor," or even "your health care provider," but "your prescriber." I think drug ads on TV and other media targeted directly to consumers are awful and should not be allowed (the United States and New Zealand are the only developed nations that allow them), and this new terminology referring doctors as nothing more than a hoop that must be jumped through for people to get these often overpriced, unnecessary, and even dangerous drugs is a new low. To be clear, I think modern pharmaceutical companies have let their greed for money (illustrated by the fact that drug companies now spend more money on advertising than they do on research), along with a completely subservient FDA, have corrupted scientific medicine. If they were to reprioritize and base their decisions based on the science, that would have incredible benefits for their customers health, and probably be even more profitable in the long run. I think people see this problem with mainstream medicine, and is in part why they're turning to alternative medicine, which is almost completely junk, as like mainstream medicine it costs a lot of money, except there's little or no scientifically sound testing of the products, so you have no idea if you're spending money on something that simply does nothing, has a small positive effect, or is downright dangerous. Maybe the mainstream drug industry would agree to end direct to consumer ads, and focus more on the research side of developing and testing new drugs if Congress were to pass a bill regulating alternative medicine, so that alternative medicine drug sellers could no longer make any unsubstantiated claims they wanted as long as they below them they included the disclaimer "These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease." If they had to actually have rigorous scientific research supporting the claims they made, I think probably 90% or more of the alternative medicine industry would disappear overnight (good riddance!). And that, along with mainstream medicine cleaning up their act, would be one huge win-win-win.
Migraines
A few weeks ago I figured out that for the last few years I've been getting migraines. I did a google search and found that the distorted vision I get every once in awhile is an 'aura' that some migraine sufferers get prior to the actual migraine. Until I read about how they were related, I had never connected my occasional temporary distorted vision with the headaches the next day where it felt like my brain had come loose and was sliding into my skull whenever I tilted my head. Partly this is because these headaches, while painful, were not close to how painful I had always heard migraines were. Even now, I think the distorted vision of the aura is more unpleasant than the headaches the next day, since I can just take a couple aspirin to relieve the headache, but there's not a lot I can do for the vision distortions.
Oreo Cookies
A few weeks ago I ran out of the organic fig bars from Whole Foods that I usually eat 1 of with my lunch. Looking for a locally available substitute, I considered Oreo cookies and looked at the ingredient list:
I thought that was funny.
A couple weeks ago while making dinner a prescription drug advertisement aired and I heard something I don't remember ever hearing before. It said, "Ask your prescriber" if such and such drug is right for you. Not "your doctor," or even "your health care provider," but "your prescriber." I think drug ads on TV and other media targeted directly to consumers are awful and should not be allowed (the United States and New Zealand are the only developed nations that allow them), and this new terminology referring doctors as nothing more than a hoop that must be jumped through for people to get these often overpriced, unnecessary, and even dangerous drugs is a new low. To be clear, I think modern pharmaceutical companies have let their greed for money (illustrated by the fact that drug companies now spend more money on advertising than they do on research), along with a completely subservient FDA, have corrupted scientific medicine. If they were to reprioritize and base their decisions based on the science, that would have incredible benefits for their customers health, and probably be even more profitable in the long run. I think people see this problem with mainstream medicine, and is in part why they're turning to alternative medicine, which is almost completely junk, as like mainstream medicine it costs a lot of money, except there's little or no scientifically sound testing of the products, so you have no idea if you're spending money on something that simply does nothing, has a small positive effect, or is downright dangerous. Maybe the mainstream drug industry would agree to end direct to consumer ads, and focus more on the research side of developing and testing new drugs if Congress were to pass a bill regulating alternative medicine, so that alternative medicine drug sellers could no longer make any unsubstantiated claims they wanted as long as they below them they included the disclaimer "These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease." If they had to actually have rigorous scientific research supporting the claims they made, I think probably 90% or more of the alternative medicine industry would disappear overnight (good riddance!). And that, along with mainstream medicine cleaning up their act, would be one huge win-win-win.
Migraines
A few weeks ago I figured out that for the last few years I've been getting migraines. I did a google search and found that the distorted vision I get every once in awhile is an 'aura' that some migraine sufferers get prior to the actual migraine. Until I read about how they were related, I had never connected my occasional temporary distorted vision with the headaches the next day where it felt like my brain had come loose and was sliding into my skull whenever I tilted my head. Partly this is because these headaches, while painful, were not close to how painful I had always heard migraines were. Even now, I think the distorted vision of the aura is more unpleasant than the headaches the next day, since I can just take a couple aspirin to relieve the headache, but there's not a lot I can do for the vision distortions.
Oreo Cookies
A few weeks ago I ran out of the organic fig bars from Whole Foods that I usually eat 1 of with my lunch. Looking for a locally available substitute, I considered Oreo cookies and looked at the ingredient list:
Sugar, enriched wheat flour, reduced iron, thiamine momonitrate, riboflavin, vegetable shortening, cocoa, corn syrup, corn flower, whey, cornstarch, baking soda, salt, soy lecithin, vanillin (artificial vanilla flavoring), and last & least of all, chocolate.
I thought that was funny.
Recent MMA events: Affliction: Banned, UFC: Fight Night 14, and UFC 87: Seek and Destroy
Back on July 19 two big MMA events took place. The first was the first ever Affliction PPV, Banned, which was headlined by the long awaited fight between Fedor Emelianenko and Tim Sylvia. Even though the fight only lasted 36 seconds, I thought it was the best fight of the night. All the other fights were pretty boring.
The UFC countered this event with their own Fight Night 14, which aired for free on Spike. I thought this card was much more exciting than the Affliction card. The fight between TUF 7 competitors C.B. Dollaway and Jesse Taylor ended with a submission that I'd never seen before, called the peruvian necktie. The main event between Silva and Irvin was exactly what I expected, a quick and impressive victory for Silva.
By far the most controversial and notable fight was the one between Anthony Johnson and Kevin Burns. I first saw Johnson fight on the previous UFC Fight Night, where he quickly defeated TUF 6 finalist Tommy Speer, who is certainly no slouch. I was very impressed with Johnson's speed and aggressiveness. In his fight against Burns, Johnson was dominating until the middle of the third round when Burns poked Johnson in the eye with his finger, sending Johnson to the mat screaming in pain. Before this, Burns had poked Johnson in the eye several times, and had received a warning from the ref. This time however, the ref missed the poke, and thinking Burns had sent Johnson to the mat with a punch, declared the fight over and gave Burns a TKO victory. Eye pokes are of course illegal in MMA, and the result of the fight should have been a disqualification for Burns. Johnson has appealed the decision, and while I don't know anything about the appeal process, I would expect a quick judgment in Johnson's favor when the appeal is considered. In his post fight interview Burns said he had injured his hand some time ago and since then has not been able to make a closed fist with his left hand, forcing him to leave it open whenever he throws it.
After the fight Johnson required surgery on his eye, and in this article Johnson reveals the extent of the damage done by Burns' finger:
This fight and its aftermath raises a ton of questions. Among them:
1. How in the world did Burns get cleared to fight by the Nevada State Athletic Comission when he was unable to make a closed fist with his left hand?
2. How in the world did Burns get cleared to fight by the UFC when he was unable to make a closed fist with his left hand?
3. In training for the fight, did Burns poke his sparring partners in the eye(s)? If so, why did he not disclose this injury and drop out of his scheduled fight with Johnson?
4. After Burns poked Johnson in the eye the final time, and the ref mistakenly declared a TKO for Burns, why couldn't one of the judges, or someone else with the UFC tell the ref what had happened, had him watch the replay, and change his ruling from a TKO to a DQ? The fight was already stopped at this point, and it seems unfair and inefficient that the ref's first ruling sticks no matter what. I mean, it was obvious to everyone as soon as they saw the first replay what had actually happened.
Fortunately the damage to Johnson's eye does not appear to be permanent. I sincerely hope that the UFC, other MMA organizations, and the various state athletic commissions take this opportunity to reexamine all of their relevant policies and take every possible step to ensure that this kind of thing does not happen again. One last thing: Johnson handled this entire ordeal with nothing but class, and has earned himself a ton of respect and new fans. I look forward to his return to the UFC.
UFC 87: Seek and Destroy
This past weekend the UFC broadcast a PPV featuring some big match-ups. Cheick Kongo fought for the first time since his loss to Heath Herring, facing Dan Evensen. Kongo won pretty easily, although I don't understand at all why Kongo kept taking the fight to the ground. I assume Kongo is still focusing training on his ground game, shoring up the weak leak in his skill set. Ground skills, while necessary for any well-rounded MMA fighter, are not his strength and I think Kongo would be best served if he tried to keep his fights standing until that proved ineffective, and then he could use his ground game as a back-up plan.
The Kenny Florian vs. Roger Huerta fight was kind of a disappointment in that it seemed like Huerta didn't want to be there. It was Huerta's first fight in 8 months, so maybe that had something to do with it. If now Florian gets to face lightweight champ B.J. Penn, I think Penn would win pretty easily.
The fight between TUF 6 competitors Rob Emerson and Manny Gamburyan was another blink and you missed it fight, and it was awesome to see Emerson score the KO like that.
The co-main event fight between Brock Lesnar vs. Heath Herring got off to an interesting start as when the fighters approached the center of the octagon before the fight the referee accidentally poked Herring in the eye. Even though Herring is a jiu-jitsu specialist, he was no match against Lesnar's wrestling and size (according to the announcers, he requires specially made XXXL gloves). While Lesnar dominated the entire fight, it would have been more impressive if he could have finished it. I read one analyst who thought Lesnar kept the fight going just trying to get experience in the octagon. In any event, I think this fight showed that Lesnar has the potential to one day be a serious contender in the heavyweight division.
The main event between Georges St. Pierre and Jon Fitch was surprising. Not that St. Pierre won, which I thought was a given, but that Fitch lasted all 5 rounds. I've been very impressed with Fitch in every fight of his that I've seen, but I still didn't think he had much of a chance against St. Pierre. His lasting 5 rounds is all the more impressive considering he took some very damaging punches in the first round (probably a 10-8 round for St. Pierre), and then probably narrowly won the 2nd round. While St. Pierre easily won rounds 3, 4, and 5, his sticking in there for the full 25 minutes was quite an accomplishment. Still, I'm not sure exactly what exactly he could work on in order to be more competitive if he were to get a rematch, besides of course land a lucky punch like Matt Serra did.
After the fight there was talk of a rematch between St. Pierre and Penn, who now fights at 155. While I think Penn could easily dominate the 155 division for the next few years, I don't know how much of a chance he'd have against Penn. St. Pierre's ground game has improved dramatically since their first match up, so it would be hard to imagine Penn submitting him. Also, even after Penn's impressive TKO victory against Sean Sherk, GSP's striking seems superior, so I think he'd have the stand-up advantage as well. That said, Penn seems to have rededicated himself to fighting since moving to lightweight, so I'm sure Penn would make it a good fight.
The UFC countered this event with their own Fight Night 14, which aired for free on Spike. I thought this card was much more exciting than the Affliction card. The fight between TUF 7 competitors C.B. Dollaway and Jesse Taylor ended with a submission that I'd never seen before, called the peruvian necktie. The main event between Silva and Irvin was exactly what I expected, a quick and impressive victory for Silva.
By far the most controversial and notable fight was the one between Anthony Johnson and Kevin Burns. I first saw Johnson fight on the previous UFC Fight Night, where he quickly defeated TUF 6 finalist Tommy Speer, who is certainly no slouch. I was very impressed with Johnson's speed and aggressiveness. In his fight against Burns, Johnson was dominating until the middle of the third round when Burns poked Johnson in the eye with his finger, sending Johnson to the mat screaming in pain. Before this, Burns had poked Johnson in the eye several times, and had received a warning from the ref. This time however, the ref missed the poke, and thinking Burns had sent Johnson to the mat with a punch, declared the fight over and gave Burns a TKO victory. Eye pokes are of course illegal in MMA, and the result of the fight should have been a disqualification for Burns. Johnson has appealed the decision, and while I don't know anything about the appeal process, I would expect a quick judgment in Johnson's favor when the appeal is considered. In his post fight interview Burns said he had injured his hand some time ago and since then has not been able to make a closed fist with his left hand, forcing him to leave it open whenever he throws it.
After the fight Johnson required surgery on his eye, and in this article Johnson reveals the extent of the damage done by Burns' finger:
My retina was damaged, possibly detached, and the laceration was pretty long. It was basically from one end of my eye to the other. They did laser surgery that took about two hours, put some stitches on it basically.
This fight and its aftermath raises a ton of questions. Among them:
1. How in the world did Burns get cleared to fight by the Nevada State Athletic Comission when he was unable to make a closed fist with his left hand?
2. How in the world did Burns get cleared to fight by the UFC when he was unable to make a closed fist with his left hand?
3. In training for the fight, did Burns poke his sparring partners in the eye(s)? If so, why did he not disclose this injury and drop out of his scheduled fight with Johnson?
4. After Burns poked Johnson in the eye the final time, and the ref mistakenly declared a TKO for Burns, why couldn't one of the judges, or someone else with the UFC tell the ref what had happened, had him watch the replay, and change his ruling from a TKO to a DQ? The fight was already stopped at this point, and it seems unfair and inefficient that the ref's first ruling sticks no matter what. I mean, it was obvious to everyone as soon as they saw the first replay what had actually happened.
Fortunately the damage to Johnson's eye does not appear to be permanent. I sincerely hope that the UFC, other MMA organizations, and the various state athletic commissions take this opportunity to reexamine all of their relevant policies and take every possible step to ensure that this kind of thing does not happen again. One last thing: Johnson handled this entire ordeal with nothing but class, and has earned himself a ton of respect and new fans. I look forward to his return to the UFC.
UFC 87: Seek and Destroy
This past weekend the UFC broadcast a PPV featuring some big match-ups. Cheick Kongo fought for the first time since his loss to Heath Herring, facing Dan Evensen. Kongo won pretty easily, although I don't understand at all why Kongo kept taking the fight to the ground. I assume Kongo is still focusing training on his ground game, shoring up the weak leak in his skill set. Ground skills, while necessary for any well-rounded MMA fighter, are not his strength and I think Kongo would be best served if he tried to keep his fights standing until that proved ineffective, and then he could use his ground game as a back-up plan.
The Kenny Florian vs. Roger Huerta fight was kind of a disappointment in that it seemed like Huerta didn't want to be there. It was Huerta's first fight in 8 months, so maybe that had something to do with it. If now Florian gets to face lightweight champ B.J. Penn, I think Penn would win pretty easily.
The fight between TUF 6 competitors Rob Emerson and Manny Gamburyan was another blink and you missed it fight, and it was awesome to see Emerson score the KO like that.
The co-main event fight between Brock Lesnar vs. Heath Herring got off to an interesting start as when the fighters approached the center of the octagon before the fight the referee accidentally poked Herring in the eye. Even though Herring is a jiu-jitsu specialist, he was no match against Lesnar's wrestling and size (according to the announcers, he requires specially made XXXL gloves). While Lesnar dominated the entire fight, it would have been more impressive if he could have finished it. I read one analyst who thought Lesnar kept the fight going just trying to get experience in the octagon. In any event, I think this fight showed that Lesnar has the potential to one day be a serious contender in the heavyweight division.
The main event between Georges St. Pierre and Jon Fitch was surprising. Not that St. Pierre won, which I thought was a given, but that Fitch lasted all 5 rounds. I've been very impressed with Fitch in every fight of his that I've seen, but I still didn't think he had much of a chance against St. Pierre. His lasting 5 rounds is all the more impressive considering he took some very damaging punches in the first round (probably a 10-8 round for St. Pierre), and then probably narrowly won the 2nd round. While St. Pierre easily won rounds 3, 4, and 5, his sticking in there for the full 25 minutes was quite an accomplishment. Still, I'm not sure exactly what exactly he could work on in order to be more competitive if he were to get a rematch, besides of course land a lucky punch like Matt Serra did.
After the fight there was talk of a rematch between St. Pierre and Penn, who now fights at 155. While I think Penn could easily dominate the 155 division for the next few years, I don't know how much of a chance he'd have against Penn. St. Pierre's ground game has improved dramatically since their first match up, so it would be hard to imagine Penn submitting him. Also, even after Penn's impressive TKO victory against Sean Sherk, GSP's striking seems superior, so I think he'd have the stand-up advantage as well. That said, Penn seems to have rededicated himself to fighting since moving to lightweight, so I'm sure Penn would make it a good fight.
Monday, August 4, 2008
Bill Moyers Journal: Capitol Crimes
Friday night on Bill Moyers Journal they re-aired their 2006 report about the corruption network involving, among others, Jack Abramoff, Ralph Reed, Grover Norquist, and Tom DeLay.
The program can currently be viewed online here:
Bill Moyers Journal: Capitol Crimes
In addition, at the very end of the broadcast (Part IV online) there's a brief update with developments since the original report aired, and a more thorough update is posted on their website, here.
It's harrowing to be reminded of all the dirty dealings that have gone on, but it's somewhat comforting to know that some of those involved are now getting their just deserts for their crimes.
The program can currently be viewed online here:
Bill Moyers Journal: Capitol Crimes
In addition, at the very end of the broadcast (Part IV online) there's a brief update with developments since the original report aired, and a more thorough update is posted on their website, here.
It's harrowing to be reminded of all the dirty dealings that have gone on, but it's somewhat comforting to know that some of those involved are now getting their just deserts for their crimes.
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Rant
The past couple years I haven't been reading as many books as I used to or would like to.
Having more free time than I usually do, this weekend I read Rant: An Oral History Of Buster Casey by Chuck Palahniuk.
For a while he was probably my favorite author.
Fight Club was great.
Survivor was even better.
Invisible Monsters was also very good.
Choke, I thought, was awful. (Although the upcoming movie does look pretty good.)
Lullaby was a little bit better, but still not good.
Diary, I remember almost nothing about.
Haunted, that one was like 2 books, one that started good but got worse as it went along, the other the opposite, starting bad but getting better, and ending up pretty good.
Somewhere in the middle of those there were the 2 non-fiction books, Fugitives And Refugees, which was very interesting, and Stranger Than Fiction, which was decent.
Based on my lower opinion of his last 4 fiction books, I didn't tear into Rant as soon as I got my hands on it.
I just checked, and it was released over a year ago.
So how does Rant compare to the rest of the books by Palahniuk?
Well, two days ago, I would have said Survivor was my favorite Palahniuk book.
Today, that's no longer true.
It's been probably 8 years since I read Survivor, and I'm sure my memories of it have been altered with time, with enhanced memories of the great parts and diminished recollection of the not so great parts.
Rant, I can say with it completely fresh in mind and unaltered by memory, was fantastic. The first 20 pages or so were confusing, but then it becomes a real page turner for 100 pages or so. It slows down considerably with a couple chapters that change everything. After those chapters it picks up again straight through the end. About 1/4 of the way through I thought figured out one big part of the twist, and about 1/2 way through I was certain of it, although I didn't have a clue about the mechanism. I was pretty close about the big idea, but nowhere close in the details or scope. Anyway, I'll have to read it again before too long to see everything I missed, and also try to figure out a few things I'm still unsure about.
After finishing it, I looked it up on Amazon to see what kind of reviews it got there, and they were mixed, leaning slightly to the positive side. Here's an excerpt from one of the reviews, which I thought was hilarious:
"This was the first Chuck Palahniuk book I read.
I read it in audio format, which I think really added to the book because you get to hear all the different voices."
--K. W. Bennink
Anyway, I think I'll read Snuff next weekend. From the synopsis and (spoiler-free) reviews I've read it doesn't sound too great, but we'll see.
eta: From wikipedia:
Hell yeah!
Having more free time than I usually do, this weekend I read Rant: An Oral History Of Buster Casey by Chuck Palahniuk.
For a while he was probably my favorite author.
Fight Club was great.
Survivor was even better.
Invisible Monsters was also very good.
Choke, I thought, was awful. (Although the upcoming movie does look pretty good.)
Lullaby was a little bit better, but still not good.
Diary, I remember almost nothing about.
Haunted, that one was like 2 books, one that started good but got worse as it went along, the other the opposite, starting bad but getting better, and ending up pretty good.
Somewhere in the middle of those there were the 2 non-fiction books, Fugitives And Refugees, which was very interesting, and Stranger Than Fiction, which was decent.
Based on my lower opinion of his last 4 fiction books, I didn't tear into Rant as soon as I got my hands on it.
I just checked, and it was released over a year ago.
So how does Rant compare to the rest of the books by Palahniuk?
Well, two days ago, I would have said Survivor was my favorite Palahniuk book.
Today, that's no longer true.
It's been probably 8 years since I read Survivor, and I'm sure my memories of it have been altered with time, with enhanced memories of the great parts and diminished recollection of the not so great parts.
Rant, I can say with it completely fresh in mind and unaltered by memory, was fantastic. The first 20 pages or so were confusing, but then it becomes a real page turner for 100 pages or so. It slows down considerably with a couple chapters that change everything. After those chapters it picks up again straight through the end. About 1/4 of the way through I thought figured out one big part of the twist, and about 1/2 way through I was certain of it, although I didn't have a clue about the mechanism. I was pretty close about the big idea, but nowhere close in the details or scope. Anyway, I'll have to read it again before too long to see everything I missed, and also try to figure out a few things I'm still unsure about.
After finishing it, I looked it up on Amazon to see what kind of reviews it got there, and they were mixed, leaning slightly to the positive side. Here's an excerpt from one of the reviews, which I thought was hilarious:
"This was the first Chuck Palahniuk book I read.
I read it in audio format, which I think really added to the book because you get to hear all the different voices."
--K. W. Bennink
Anyway, I think I'll read Snuff next weekend. From the synopsis and (spoiler-free) reviews I've read it doesn't sound too great, but we'll see.
eta: From wikipedia:
During his "Rant 2007" tour, Palahniuk has indicated that he will continue to write two more books based on Rant, to be released tentatively in 2011 and 2013 but also stated that he will be writing other books in between, with his next to be titled Snuff. [3]
Hell yeah!
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Speaking of web videos...
Saw this video on Digg tonight:
Pretty good video. Two things:
1. At about the minute mark, they play a short clip from McCain's May 2008 appearance on SNL, where he jokes about his old age. Obviously he was trying to use humor to convince people that his age didn't matter or at least to not seriously consider it. While I disagree with the vast majority of McCain's positions on the issues and think he would be a terrible President, I certainly do not wish McCain harm or ill health. However, considering that he's running for President, his age and health must be examined seriously. After all, if Democratic candidate Paul Tsongas had been elected President in 1992, he would have died 2 days before the end of his first term ended in 1997. McCain will be 72 next month, and if he wins the election in November (shudder) he would be the oldest person to ever be elected President. While McCain's mother Roberta is 96 years old and still going strong, McCain's father lived to be 70, and his paternal grandfather lived to be 61. The stunt McCain pulled in May, releasing over 1,000 pages of documents covering his health from 2000 to 2008, and then giving journalists a few hours to review them certainly did nothing to allay these concerns about his health.
2. At about the 1:30 mark, there's a clip of McCain talking about how sending a man to Mars is a worthwhile ambition. While McCain doesn't get into specifics about this, or why it's important, other than that it would be a great accomplishment, I agree with him on the importance of this. While the cost would no doubt be great, I think it would be worth it. Quite simply, I think that colonizing the solar system, primarily Mars and the moon, as soon as possible is critically important for insuring the long term survival of the human race.
Pretty good video. Two things:
1. At about the minute mark, they play a short clip from McCain's May 2008 appearance on SNL, where he jokes about his old age. Obviously he was trying to use humor to convince people that his age didn't matter or at least to not seriously consider it. While I disagree with the vast majority of McCain's positions on the issues and think he would be a terrible President, I certainly do not wish McCain harm or ill health. However, considering that he's running for President, his age and health must be examined seriously. After all, if Democratic candidate Paul Tsongas had been elected President in 1992, he would have died 2 days before the end of his first term ended in 1997. McCain will be 72 next month, and if he wins the election in November (shudder) he would be the oldest person to ever be elected President. While McCain's mother Roberta is 96 years old and still going strong, McCain's father lived to be 70, and his paternal grandfather lived to be 61. The stunt McCain pulled in May, releasing over 1,000 pages of documents covering his health from 2000 to 2008, and then giving journalists a few hours to review them certainly did nothing to allay these concerns about his health.
2. At about the 1:30 mark, there's a clip of McCain talking about how sending a man to Mars is a worthwhile ambition. While McCain doesn't get into specifics about this, or why it's important, other than that it would be a great accomplishment, I agree with him on the importance of this. While the cost would no doubt be great, I think it would be worth it. Quite simply, I think that colonizing the solar system, primarily Mars and the moon, as soon as possible is critically important for insuring the long term survival of the human race.
Web Video
Web video is great for comedy, music, and other entertainment videos. It's also pretty good for interview videos, and good for public speech videos.
It is horrible for opinion monologues, instructions on how to do something, and any other type of video where one person is conveying information. Any of these sorts of things would be much better in written form, perhaps with pictures for the instructional things.
It is horrible for opinion monologues, instructions on how to do something, and any other type of video where one person is conveying information. Any of these sorts of things would be much better in written form, perhaps with pictures for the instructional things.
Northern Attack's 2008 Summer Hiatus Contest - Week 8
The prompt from Week #8: Something New And It's Up To You
My entry:
Michael: Who wants to try my new polygraph? Besides Dwight.
(Silence)
Michael: I tested it last night. It's fun.
(Silence)
Michael: Pam?
Pam: ... Alright.
A minute later, Dwight is connecting everything.
Michael: Oh, those go on your fingers? Whoops.
Pam: Where did you...
Michael: Kidding!
Michael looks at the camera.
--------------------------
The big thing about this prompt was that written entries were limited to 50 words, while non-written entries had no word or time limits. At first I had no intention of doing a written entry, wanting instead to do an audio entry using one of the ideas I had from before the contest began, where [redacted]. But that seemed kind of off for the prompt, and when people started actually submitting 50 words (plus pictures) entries, I didn't want to be the one person with a 5 minute audio entry. Also, it turns out I vastly overestimated my audio creation and editing skills, and I didn't get much past downloading a few audio samples. I think it would have been really cool if I had been able to pull it off, but it was not to be. I was going to post the written version of what this entry would have been, but after thinking about it, I think I'll wait to see if I can use it on DMI somehow. After I decided to go with a written entry, the 50 word maximum was even more restricting than I first suspected. With the bigger word limits I was OK with having a mediocre basic idea and then sprucing things up by adding other things to it so that it wasn't too embarassing. But with just 50 words to work with, the basic idea has to be really good or else it's a lost cause. Whereas with past weeks I wanted to wait till late in the week to submit my entry to make sure I didn't regret not including something good I thought of later in the week, I usually submitted my entry early out of fear someone else would do the same idea. Well this week I didn't enter until Sunday because I didn't know for sure what I was going to do until Sunday morning, as I didn't like many of my ideas. Here are a few of the other entries I came up with:
Maury Povich: Andy, you... ARE NOT the father.
Andy: Dammit.
Maury: Dwight Schrute, you... ARE NOT the father.
Dwight: Frak.
Angela: If it's not them, there's only one other person it could be.
Maury: Please welcome Roy Anderson!
Roy: Hi Angela, Maury.
Maury: Roy, you... ARE the father.
Roy: Alright!
-----
Chili's
Michael: Over the past year, I've changed my spending habits considerately, and I'm no longer in debt. In recognition of this accomplishment, I'm proud to present myself... (removes blanket) this!
Next day
Holly: (Laughing) Michael, this fake expense report is hilarious! $6,400 for... that. Good one!
Michael turns white.
-----
(note: the following one is significantly over the 50-word limit)
"Attention Scranton business park, there will be complimentary pretzels available in the lobby from now until 4 o'clock as a thank you to our loyal tenants"
Everyone gets up to go get a pretzel, except for Stanley, who looks disgusted.
Stanley (TH): Last week I got a home soft pretzel maker. In the last 7 days I've eaten 36 soft pretzels. I don't think I'll be having another one for quite some time.
An hour later, the camera catches Stanley waiting in line.
Stanley: I guess one more won't hurt.
-----
There was other one that at first seemed really silly and fun, but in the middle of working on the visual component for it, it started to seem morally questionable / in bad taste so I abandoned it and won't post what I completed here.
Anyway, back to the entry I submitted: Because of the 50-word limit, I fiddled with it more than I did for most of the other entries. The biggest change was the ending, which until a couple hours before I submitted it was:
Pam: Where did you...
Michael looks at the camera.
Pam: Michael!
Not a big change obviously, but I fretted over it nonetheless. While at first I regretted the change after submitting my entry, now I like how he lied with the polygraph right there. Anyway, as I've written here before, I think the polygraph scenes from this last season of Reno 911! were the best scenes the show has ever done, and I think it would be awesome if The Office did an episode that involved a polygraph (probably as the B story). I'm sure the writers could come up with some awesome stuff several million times funnier and more creative than I ever could.
Anyway, I submitted my final votes a little bit ago. Like I said before, there were a good number of photo entries in addition to the written entries, as well as an animated entry (but no audio entries), so that, along with how short the written entries were, definitely made picking 3 favorites more difficult than any of the other weeks. After reading all the entries a bunch of times I had 2 favorites and 3 that were close behind, and then I reread those 3 several more times until I had my 3rd favorite.
This year's contest flew by so fast, it's hard to believe it's already over. Looking back at my own entries, the only one I really wish I could go back and change is probably the one for Karen's last words. I had 12 more words I could have used, and the other day I thought of something cool to use since the setting was an alternate universe: A laugh track! I don't know why I didn't think of that when I was working on the prompt. The only difficult part would have been picking where to put them. But that's not what I would have added. Instead, I would have added a Kevin talking head at the end, with him either adding something to his Pam/Karen list, remarking about what a wonderful day it was, that now he could die happy, or something like that. Looking back at everyone else's entries, all I have to say is wow. I have a long way to go before I can hope to get anything other than the least best award. But, as with the previous Office summer writing contests, it was a hell of a lot of fun and I look forward to next year's contest.
There are still 2 months until Season 5 starts. With no more weekly prompts to work on, and reading everyone else's incredible entries to look forward to, and just the soul-crushing golf this summer at DMI, it's going to seem like forever.
My entry:
Michael: Who wants to try my new polygraph? Besides Dwight.
(Silence)
Michael: I tested it last night. It's fun.
(Silence)
Michael: Pam?
Pam: ... Alright.
A minute later, Dwight is connecting everything.
Michael: Oh, those go on your fingers? Whoops.
Pam: Where did you...
Michael: Kidding!
Michael looks at the camera.
--------------------------
The big thing about this prompt was that written entries were limited to 50 words, while non-written entries had no word or time limits. At first I had no intention of doing a written entry, wanting instead to do an audio entry using one of the ideas I had from before the contest began, where [redacted]. But that seemed kind of off for the prompt, and when people started actually submitting 50 words (plus pictures) entries, I didn't want to be the one person with a 5 minute audio entry. Also, it turns out I vastly overestimated my audio creation and editing skills, and I didn't get much past downloading a few audio samples. I think it would have been really cool if I had been able to pull it off, but it was not to be. I was going to post the written version of what this entry would have been, but after thinking about it, I think I'll wait to see if I can use it on DMI somehow. After I decided to go with a written entry, the 50 word maximum was even more restricting than I first suspected. With the bigger word limits I was OK with having a mediocre basic idea and then sprucing things up by adding other things to it so that it wasn't too embarassing. But with just 50 words to work with, the basic idea has to be really good or else it's a lost cause. Whereas with past weeks I wanted to wait till late in the week to submit my entry to make sure I didn't regret not including something good I thought of later in the week, I usually submitted my entry early out of fear someone else would do the same idea. Well this week I didn't enter until Sunday because I didn't know for sure what I was going to do until Sunday morning, as I didn't like many of my ideas. Here are a few of the other entries I came up with:
Maury Povich: Andy, you... ARE NOT the father.
Andy: Dammit.
Maury: Dwight Schrute, you... ARE NOT the father.
Dwight: Frak.
Angela: If it's not them, there's only one other person it could be.
Maury: Please welcome Roy Anderson!
Roy: Hi Angela, Maury.
Maury: Roy, you... ARE the father.
Roy: Alright!
-----
Chili's
Michael: Over the past year, I've changed my spending habits considerately, and I'm no longer in debt. In recognition of this accomplishment, I'm proud to present myself... (removes blanket) this!
Next day
Holly: (Laughing) Michael, this fake expense report is hilarious! $6,400 for... that. Good one!
Michael turns white.
-----
(note: the following one is significantly over the 50-word limit)
"Attention Scranton business park, there will be complimentary pretzels available in the lobby from now until 4 o'clock as a thank you to our loyal tenants"
Everyone gets up to go get a pretzel, except for Stanley, who looks disgusted.
Stanley (TH): Last week I got a home soft pretzel maker. In the last 7 days I've eaten 36 soft pretzels. I don't think I'll be having another one for quite some time.
An hour later, the camera catches Stanley waiting in line.
Stanley: I guess one more won't hurt.
-----
There was other one that at first seemed really silly and fun, but in the middle of working on the visual component for it, it started to seem morally questionable / in bad taste so I abandoned it and won't post what I completed here.
Anyway, back to the entry I submitted: Because of the 50-word limit, I fiddled with it more than I did for most of the other entries. The biggest change was the ending, which until a couple hours before I submitted it was:
Pam: Where did you...
Michael looks at the camera.
Pam: Michael!
Not a big change obviously, but I fretted over it nonetheless. While at first I regretted the change after submitting my entry, now I like how he lied with the polygraph right there. Anyway, as I've written here before, I think the polygraph scenes from this last season of Reno 911! were the best scenes the show has ever done, and I think it would be awesome if The Office did an episode that involved a polygraph (probably as the B story). I'm sure the writers could come up with some awesome stuff several million times funnier and more creative than I ever could.
Anyway, I submitted my final votes a little bit ago. Like I said before, there were a good number of photo entries in addition to the written entries, as well as an animated entry (but no audio entries), so that, along with how short the written entries were, definitely made picking 3 favorites more difficult than any of the other weeks. After reading all the entries a bunch of times I had 2 favorites and 3 that were close behind, and then I reread those 3 several more times until I had my 3rd favorite.
This year's contest flew by so fast, it's hard to believe it's already over. Looking back at my own entries, the only one I really wish I could go back and change is probably the one for Karen's last words. I had 12 more words I could have used, and the other day I thought of something cool to use since the setting was an alternate universe: A laugh track! I don't know why I didn't think of that when I was working on the prompt. The only difficult part would have been picking where to put them. But that's not what I would have added. Instead, I would have added a Kevin talking head at the end, with him either adding something to his Pam/Karen list, remarking about what a wonderful day it was, that now he could die happy, or something like that. Looking back at everyone else's entries, all I have to say is wow. I have a long way to go before I can hope to get anything other than the least best award. But, as with the previous Office summer writing contests, it was a hell of a lot of fun and I look forward to next year's contest.
There are still 2 months until Season 5 starts. With no more weekly prompts to work on, and reading everyone else's incredible entries to look forward to, and just the soul-crushing golf this summer at DMI, it's going to seem like forever.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Three insanely awesome things from The Onion this week.
This week The Onion really outdid themselves, with 3 things that are just insanely awesome. First up is this video that debuted Monday.
Domino's Scientists Test Limits Of What Humans Will Eat
Next up is the newest entry in the Point / Counterpoint series:
Point: You're Never Too Old For Laser Tag By Will Gallant
vs.
Counterpoint: Sir, If You're Not Accompanying A Minor I'm Going To Have To Ask You To Leave By Alex Hart, LaserAdventure Mission Commander
And finally, Wednesday night's video, probably one of the three best Today Now! videos ever (along with "Child Bankrupts Make-A-Wish Foundation With Wish For Unlimited Wishes" and "How To Pretend You Give A Shit About The Election"). Be sure to watch it a second time to catch the "For Best Results" tips.
Chef Cooks 'Dream Omelet' From Recipe That Came To Him In A Dream
Domino's Scientists Test Limits Of What Humans Will Eat
Next up is the newest entry in the Point / Counterpoint series:
Point: You're Never Too Old For Laser Tag By Will Gallant
vs.
Counterpoint: Sir, If You're Not Accompanying A Minor I'm Going To Have To Ask You To Leave By Alex Hart, LaserAdventure Mission Commander
And finally, Wednesday night's video, probably one of the three best Today Now! videos ever (along with "Child Bankrupts Make-A-Wish Foundation With Wish For Unlimited Wishes" and "How To Pretend You Give A Shit About The Election"). Be sure to watch it a second time to catch the "For Best Results" tips.
Chef Cooks 'Dream Omelet' From Recipe That Came To Him In A Dream
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Point Pale Ale
A couple weeks ago I bought a 6-pack of Point Pale Ale. I looked up reviews for it on BeerPal.com after I got it and the reviews were mixed. When I drank the first one that night, I thought it was one of the best beers I'd ever had. I had the second one tonight and it was not nearly as good as I remember the first one being.
So now you know.
So now you know.
Northern Attack's 2008 Summer Hiatus Contest - Week 7
The prompt from Week #7: I have PEOPLE skills! I am GOOD at DEALING with PEOPLE!
My entry:
Invaded
Michael: Seriously, Bobs, you have got to try this steak.
Bob Porter: No thanks.
Michael: Well then at least have a kabob, Bob.
Bob Slydell: Is that a crack at my name, fattie?
Michael: No, and I'm eating for two, thank you very much.
Porter: Let's get down to it. We have some questions for you.
Michael: Okay, let's get this over with. That's what she said.
Slydell: During an average workday, how many jokes do you tell?
Michael: A dozen probably.
Porter: How many fridgolous conference room meetings?
Michael: One or two.
Slydell: How much time do you spend entertaining your workers?
Michael: A couple hours.
Porter: Thanks for your honesty. I'll be honest too. We think you need to focus on your comedy: Jokes, impersonations, all that. Let the salespeople do the sales, and forget everything else. Your job is comedy.
Michael: ...
Slydell: Is something wrong?
Michael: I think my water just broke.
A gigantic red stapler descends from the ceiling.
Stapler: MICHAEL!
Michael awakens on Jan's couch. He is wet all over. Jan is standing over him holding an empty glass.
Jan: What have I told you about leaving the TV on at night? How are you going to hear me if I need something?
Michael: Sorry.
Jan walks away. Michael watches the TV for a minute.
Michael (Talking to himself): Ugh, Office Space. Who in the world would spend their free time watching people in a fictional office? ... (Snickers) That boss is such an idiot.
-----------------------------
A month ago or so I think I had a weird dream where Michael was in his office interviewing an applicant for a job and he was eating a bunch of food during it. Lasagna is what I remember, but there was other stuff I'm sure. I decided I'd try to incorporate it into an entry if possible, and this seemed like a good opportunity to do so. Last night I unplugged everything because there was a thunderstorm warning, and during that time I wrote out everything I wanted to include in my entry. After I got done, I obviously had no way to count the words to get an idea at where I was in relation to the 250 word limit, and all night I was worried I was at like 750 words or something, and I'd either have to eliminate huge portions of stuff or do something else entirely. I was relieved when I typed it up, and found that it was just over the 250 word limit, and the only thing I had to cut was the part where Michael talked about how good the food was, choked while doing so, and then choked again after he woke up, and he had been chewing on one of Jan's candles during the dream. But that wasn't too big of loss. One thing I debated about was I originally had The Bob's second question refer to "unnecessary conference room meetings," then changed it to frivolous, then finally to fridgolous - even in Michael's dreams he messes up words, even if they aren't his own. If nothing else, another clue that something is definitely not right. Anyway, there's just one more week to go, and I've had so much fun writing my entries and reading everyone else's amazing entries I'm really going to miss it when it's over. Also, I have 3 more ideas that I'd really like to use for entries, but at most I'll only get to use 1 of them, as there's no way they'd still be relevant by the time (fingers crossed) next year's contest rolls around.
My entry:
Invaded
Michael: Seriously, Bobs, you have got to try this steak.
Bob Porter: No thanks.
Michael: Well then at least have a kabob, Bob.
Bob Slydell: Is that a crack at my name, fattie?
Michael: No, and I'm eating for two, thank you very much.
Porter: Let's get down to it. We have some questions for you.
Michael: Okay, let's get this over with. That's what she said.
Slydell: During an average workday, how many jokes do you tell?
Michael: A dozen probably.
Porter: How many fridgolous conference room meetings?
Michael: One or two.
Slydell: How much time do you spend entertaining your workers?
Michael: A couple hours.
Porter: Thanks for your honesty. I'll be honest too. We think you need to focus on your comedy: Jokes, impersonations, all that. Let the salespeople do the sales, and forget everything else. Your job is comedy.
Michael: ...
Slydell: Is something wrong?
Michael: I think my water just broke.
A gigantic red stapler descends from the ceiling.
Stapler: MICHAEL!
Michael awakens on Jan's couch. He is wet all over. Jan is standing over him holding an empty glass.
Jan: What have I told you about leaving the TV on at night? How are you going to hear me if I need something?
Michael: Sorry.
Jan walks away. Michael watches the TV for a minute.
Michael (Talking to himself): Ugh, Office Space. Who in the world would spend their free time watching people in a fictional office? ... (Snickers) That boss is such an idiot.
-----------------------------
A month ago or so I think I had a weird dream where Michael was in his office interviewing an applicant for a job and he was eating a bunch of food during it. Lasagna is what I remember, but there was other stuff I'm sure. I decided I'd try to incorporate it into an entry if possible, and this seemed like a good opportunity to do so. Last night I unplugged everything because there was a thunderstorm warning, and during that time I wrote out everything I wanted to include in my entry. After I got done, I obviously had no way to count the words to get an idea at where I was in relation to the 250 word limit, and all night I was worried I was at like 750 words or something, and I'd either have to eliminate huge portions of stuff or do something else entirely. I was relieved when I typed it up, and found that it was just over the 250 word limit, and the only thing I had to cut was the part where Michael talked about how good the food was, choked while doing so, and then choked again after he woke up, and he had been chewing on one of Jan's candles during the dream. But that wasn't too big of loss. One thing I debated about was I originally had The Bob's second question refer to "unnecessary conference room meetings," then changed it to frivolous, then finally to fridgolous - even in Michael's dreams he messes up words, even if they aren't his own. If nothing else, another clue that something is definitely not right. Anyway, there's just one more week to go, and I've had so much fun writing my entries and reading everyone else's amazing entries I'm really going to miss it when it's over. Also, I have 3 more ideas that I'd really like to use for entries, but at most I'll only get to use 1 of them, as there's no way they'd still be relevant by the time (fingers crossed) next year's contest rolls around.
Northern Attack's 2008 Summer Hiatus Contest - Week 6
The prompt from Week #6: Accepted
My entry:
A^2 + B^2 = C^2
As I'm sure a bright individual such as yourself knows, the above equation is the Pythagorean Theorem. I learned it several years ago in math class. Normally it relates to triangles or something, but to me it stands for something else, namely: Andy + Bernard = Cornell.
I've always had my heart set on Cornell, and in many ways I think it's my destiny. The fourteenth word I ever said was 'one,' which is an important part of Cornell, since without 'one,' Cornell would just be 'Crll.' After my recent campus visit, I have no doubt that Cornell University is the one for me.
I've always taken education seriously, which is apparent from looking at my history. Not so much by looking at my grades or standardized test scores, obviously, but rather through other, less quantifiable ways. Unfortunately I don't have time to go into these here.
When not in the classroom, two of my favorite activities are Frisbee and golf. I passionately believe that if there was some hybrid sport that combined Frisbee and golf, Gobee it might be called, that that would be the perfect sport. Unless you disagree, in which case I could see your point and I would then reconsider my position. No doubt I would eventually be swayed by your logic, and after rethinking things I too think that it wouldn't be the perfect sport, but it would be good to a lesser degree, similar to what you think. Like they say, great minds think alike!
Additionally, I enjoy singing whenever I get a chance. You'll find enclosed a tape of me singing "Cornell Victorious" and the "New Cornell Fight Song." Feel free to make copies for your friends!
As you can tell, I have high hopes for attending Cornell next fall. But if for some inconceivable reason that doesn't happen, I hope you'll save a spot for me in next year's admission class to Columbia University. To be honest, it's not my first choice, but at least it's still a C-word university in New York, right? Ogay Ionslay!
-----------------------
After I first read the prompt, I immediately had several ideas that I thought were decent, but it wasn't long before I figured out that my writing skills were not up to the task of writing for any of those ideas. I read some stuff online about what to do and what not to do in college essays, and hopefully that shows. I know more than a few parts don't sound anything like Andy, but I rationalized that in high school his methods would have been rather crude compared to what they have been in the last 2 seasons on the show.
There were 16 entries for this prompt, and I had a very difficult time deciding on three favorites. After reading all the entries a bunch of times I ended up with 6 that stood apart, and after reading those a bunch more times I had 3 favorites. I changed my pick for a 3rd favorite multiple times before sending in my votes.
My entry:
A^2 + B^2 = C^2
As I'm sure a bright individual such as yourself knows, the above equation is the Pythagorean Theorem. I learned it several years ago in math class. Normally it relates to triangles or something, but to me it stands for something else, namely: Andy + Bernard = Cornell.
I've always had my heart set on Cornell, and in many ways I think it's my destiny. The fourteenth word I ever said was 'one,' which is an important part of Cornell, since without 'one,' Cornell would just be 'Crll.' After my recent campus visit, I have no doubt that Cornell University is the one for me.
I've always taken education seriously, which is apparent from looking at my history. Not so much by looking at my grades or standardized test scores, obviously, but rather through other, less quantifiable ways. Unfortunately I don't have time to go into these here.
When not in the classroom, two of my favorite activities are Frisbee and golf. I passionately believe that if there was some hybrid sport that combined Frisbee and golf, Gobee it might be called, that that would be the perfect sport. Unless you disagree, in which case I could see your point and I would then reconsider my position. No doubt I would eventually be swayed by your logic, and after rethinking things I too think that it wouldn't be the perfect sport, but it would be good to a lesser degree, similar to what you think. Like they say, great minds think alike!
Additionally, I enjoy singing whenever I get a chance. You'll find enclosed a tape of me singing "Cornell Victorious" and the "New Cornell Fight Song." Feel free to make copies for your friends!
As you can tell, I have high hopes for attending Cornell next fall. But if for some inconceivable reason that doesn't happen, I hope you'll save a spot for me in next year's admission class to Columbia University. To be honest, it's not my first choice, but at least it's still a C-word university in New York, right? Ogay Ionslay!
-----------------------
After I first read the prompt, I immediately had several ideas that I thought were decent, but it wasn't long before I figured out that my writing skills were not up to the task of writing for any of those ideas. I read some stuff online about what to do and what not to do in college essays, and hopefully that shows. I know more than a few parts don't sound anything like Andy, but I rationalized that in high school his methods would have been rather crude compared to what they have been in the last 2 seasons on the show.
There were 16 entries for this prompt, and I had a very difficult time deciding on three favorites. After reading all the entries a bunch of times I ended up with 6 that stood apart, and after reading those a bunch more times I had 3 favorites. I changed my pick for a 3rd favorite multiple times before sending in my votes.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
the poker bug
I haven't played poker online for at least a year, maybe 2, but I've been following the updates on this year's WSOP daily on CardPlayer, and I got the bug to play again. So tonight I played 4 10 person sit and go tournaments, and in order I got 2nd, 1st, 3rd, and the 4th is at level 3 right now. I had a really bad headache earlier, but thanks to a couple aspirin it's gone now for the most part.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Northern Attack's 2008 Summer Hiatus Contest - Week 5
The prompt from Week #5: Spinning Your Wheels? Well, Spin This!
My entry:
The Adventures of Beetman
Dwayne Spruce is the esteemed regional manager of Bender-Turanga paper company in Steamtown, USA. He also leads a secret life as the incredible Beetman, one of the rare vegetable inspired superheroes.
Highlights from the show's 7th episode, "Beetman Battles the Prankster VII."
It's a normal, exhilarating day at the office when the mischievous Prankster appears. He has somehow put Spruce's entire desk in gelatin.
Spruce walks out of the kitchen and sees his desk, then tells the receptionist he has to go see the dentist.
Moments later, onlookers see something moving through the parking lot.
Onlooker #1: Over there! It's a turnip...
Onlooker #2: It's a huge red crayon...
Onlooker #3: It's Beetman!
Beetman arrives in the office and removes from his belt a can of his specially formulated beet-derived prank repellent, and sprays the entire desk with it.
The gelatin changes color, flies off the desk, and wraps around the Prankster, encasing him in gelatin from the neck down.
Beetman removes a small chunk of gelatin and tastes it.
Beetman: Prankster, your deed was malicious, but your crimson prison is delicious.
Later, April O'Martin, the Peabody Award winning reporter from Steamtown's Channel 4 News and Spruce's secret girlfriend, arrives at the scene to collect statements from observers.
Later still, Spruce and O'Martin are in the Beetcave reading the statements.
April: Could you put me in gelatin?
Dwayne: Yeah, but why?
April: And eat your way to me?
Dwayne grins.
Fade to black.
-----------------------
After probably a hundred bad ideas (even by my standards), I got the idea for my entry on Tuesday. I was working on it Wednesday night when I saw an entry that had been posted that contained some similar things. I figured I'd have to use another idea, but after trying and failing to come up with something else I liked for a couple days, I was back to Beetman. I don't like writing dialogue, but I do like writing visual descriptions. A couple weeks ago I thought it would be funny to do a post with all visual descriptions except for one short line of dialogue. I didn't think I'd actually do it, but this entry is pretty close with a ton of visual descriptions and very little dialogue. If I had it to differently, I would have done something that was more creative, since I thought to fit the prompt, Dwight's show would probably not be terribly creative.
For the other entries, there were only 14 of them, so that sucked, but they were all awesome, so that made reading them very fun, but made voting difficult. I don't know if I misunderstood the prompt, but I was surprised at how many of the entries were in-Office universe spin-offs for the characters, something I never considered doing, as I instead focusing on the question from the prompt: "Tell us what one (or more) of the characters from The Office would do if given the opportunity to star in their dream television show." Anyway, I ended up having 3 favorites and 3 tied for second.
My entry:
The Adventures of Beetman
Dwayne Spruce is the esteemed regional manager of Bender-Turanga paper company in Steamtown, USA. He also leads a secret life as the incredible Beetman, one of the rare vegetable inspired superheroes.
Highlights from the show's 7th episode, "Beetman Battles the Prankster VII."
It's a normal, exhilarating day at the office when the mischievous Prankster appears. He has somehow put Spruce's entire desk in gelatin.
Spruce walks out of the kitchen and sees his desk, then tells the receptionist he has to go see the dentist.
Moments later, onlookers see something moving through the parking lot.
Onlooker #1: Over there! It's a turnip...
Onlooker #2: It's a huge red crayon...
Onlooker #3: It's Beetman!
Beetman arrives in the office and removes from his belt a can of his specially formulated beet-derived prank repellent, and sprays the entire desk with it.
The gelatin changes color, flies off the desk, and wraps around the Prankster, encasing him in gelatin from the neck down.
Beetman removes a small chunk of gelatin and tastes it.
Beetman: Prankster, your deed was malicious, but your crimson prison is delicious.
Later, April O'Martin, the Peabody Award winning reporter from Steamtown's Channel 4 News and Spruce's secret girlfriend, arrives at the scene to collect statements from observers.
Later still, Spruce and O'Martin are in the Beetcave reading the statements.
April: Could you put me in gelatin?
Dwayne: Yeah, but why?
April: And eat your way to me?
Dwayne grins.
Fade to black.
-----------------------
After probably a hundred bad ideas (even by my standards), I got the idea for my entry on Tuesday. I was working on it Wednesday night when I saw an entry that had been posted that contained some similar things. I figured I'd have to use another idea, but after trying and failing to come up with something else I liked for a couple days, I was back to Beetman. I don't like writing dialogue, but I do like writing visual descriptions. A couple weeks ago I thought it would be funny to do a post with all visual descriptions except for one short line of dialogue. I didn't think I'd actually do it, but this entry is pretty close with a ton of visual descriptions and very little dialogue. If I had it to differently, I would have done something that was more creative, since I thought to fit the prompt, Dwight's show would probably not be terribly creative.
For the other entries, there were only 14 of them, so that sucked, but they were all awesome, so that made reading them very fun, but made voting difficult. I don't know if I misunderstood the prompt, but I was surprised at how many of the entries were in-Office universe spin-offs for the characters, something I never considered doing, as I instead focusing on the question from the prompt: "Tell us what one (or more) of the characters from The Office would do if given the opportunity to star in their dream television show." Anyway, I ended up having 3 favorites and 3 tied for second.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Northern Attack's 2008 Summer Hiatus Contest - Week 4
For the week 3 entries, even though there were a lot of basic similarities considering the rather specific prompt, I think all of the other entries were very good. I ended up having 1 favorite, 2 that were right behind, and 3 that were tied for 4th.
In contrast to the specific week 3 prompt, the week 4 prompt gave us room to explore all kinds of creative space with our entries.
The prompt from Week #4: Besmirched, Befuddled & Besieged
My entry:
Befuddled
A man wearing a white suit and carrying a silver briefcase walks into the office.
Pam: Hi, can I help you?
The man ignores her and continues walking until he gets to the desk facing Meredith's. He sits, opens his briefcase, removes a folder, and begins working on the computer.
Most everyone in the main office area stops working and starts watching this man.
Meredith leans to the side to look at him, looks down, then looks again.
Phyllis: Oh my god... TOM?
Kelly, who's standing at the watercooler, gasps then faints. Stanley looks at her, rolls his eyes, then resumes working.
Phyllis: Tom, is that you?
"Tom" remains silent and continues working.
Kevin grabs his M&M jar and holds it close.
Dwight removes something from his desk drawer, gets up, and walks toward Tom.
Jim: Dwight, what are you doing?
Dwight approaches Tom, holding an unfolded shovel above his head.
Jim moves quickly and grabs the shovel then stands in front of Dwight.
Dwight: Dammit, Jim! I have to destroy his brain.
Jim: No, you don't.
Dwight: Jim, if he bites you, I'll destroy your brain and take great pleasure doing so.
Jim: Fair enough.
After a few minutes of everyone watching in silence, Tom closes his work on the computer, puts the folder in his briefcase, gets up, and walks out of the office.
Michael opens the door to his office, unaware of what happened.
Michael: (Laughs) You guys aren't going to believe... (Looks around) What's going on?
Pam: I... I have no idea.
Minutes later, Michael comes out of the conference room.
Michael: Pam, get Bill Murray on the phone, now!
Creed (TH): Me? Why does everyone automatically suspect I'm involved every time somebody comes back from the dead? (Pause) Ok, don't tell anyone, but it was a guy I know from Toronto who could pass as Tom's twin. He owed me one, so I said we'd call it even if he came here to liven things up a bit. (Pause) Who's useless now, Amelia?
Meredith (TH): (Smoking a cigarette) Well, he's no Sam Wheat.
-------------------
The first idea I had about using Tom was a lot more complicated than the story here. The complete story would take at least 1,000 words, and if at all possible, I'd like to finish the story in one or more of the remaining prompts. I've never seen Ghost so I don't know how memorable that character's name is, but it seemed like since that's one of Meredith's desert island movies she would refer to him by name and not "that guy from Ghost" or "Patrick Swayze's character from Ghost."
I said I was going to try to wait to post my entry this week until Saturday or Sunday, and I made it to Friday. Although I didn't meet my goal, I did better than I did the first 3 weeks. One thing that will help me to hold off posting is that the extra time I spent tweaking my entry before posting it made it a ton better than it was originally was. Even if it still sucks, it's a hundred times less sucky than it originally was.
This week, hardly anyone posted their entry until the last few hours before the deadline. I can't imagine doing that. Besides worrying that someone else would post a similar and no doubt superior entry based on the same idea as me with no time to come up with something else, with my luck my Internet would probably go out and then I'd miss the deadline. I sent in my votes a little bit ago for week 4 and I had 3 favorites, and 5 more that I also liked a whole bunch. It's funny how in the test threads so many people are self-deprecating about their entries, that the entry sucks, or they won't get any votes. The other contest participants are all insanely smart, creative, and funny, and they're still very humble about their talent. As a non-writer who's not nearly as smart, creative, or funny as everyone else, I know that I have no chance of winning a prize in the contest, and I'd be pleased to find out I got a single vote over the course of the entire contest, or at least know that no one sent emails asking that I be blocked from the contest for my lame entries that are wasting people's time. Anyway, the week 5 prompt was posted yesterday, and so far I've had probably a hundred ideas for it, although I don't think any of them have been particularly good.
In contrast to the specific week 3 prompt, the week 4 prompt gave us room to explore all kinds of creative space with our entries.
The prompt from Week #4: Besmirched, Befuddled & Besieged
My entry:
Befuddled
A man wearing a white suit and carrying a silver briefcase walks into the office.
Pam: Hi, can I help you?
The man ignores her and continues walking until he gets to the desk facing Meredith's. He sits, opens his briefcase, removes a folder, and begins working on the computer.
Most everyone in the main office area stops working and starts watching this man.
Meredith leans to the side to look at him, looks down, then looks again.
Phyllis: Oh my god... TOM?
Kelly, who's standing at the watercooler, gasps then faints. Stanley looks at her, rolls his eyes, then resumes working.
Phyllis: Tom, is that you?
"Tom" remains silent and continues working.
Kevin grabs his M&M jar and holds it close.
Dwight removes something from his desk drawer, gets up, and walks toward Tom.
Jim: Dwight, what are you doing?
Dwight approaches Tom, holding an unfolded shovel above his head.
Jim moves quickly and grabs the shovel then stands in front of Dwight.
Dwight: Dammit, Jim! I have to destroy his brain.
Jim: No, you don't.
Dwight: Jim, if he bites you, I'll destroy your brain and take great pleasure doing so.
Jim: Fair enough.
After a few minutes of everyone watching in silence, Tom closes his work on the computer, puts the folder in his briefcase, gets up, and walks out of the office.
Michael opens the door to his office, unaware of what happened.
Michael: (Laughs) You guys aren't going to believe... (Looks around) What's going on?
Pam: I... I have no idea.
Minutes later, Michael comes out of the conference room.
Michael: Pam, get Bill Murray on the phone, now!
Creed (TH): Me? Why does everyone automatically suspect I'm involved every time somebody comes back from the dead? (Pause) Ok, don't tell anyone, but it was a guy I know from Toronto who could pass as Tom's twin. He owed me one, so I said we'd call it even if he came here to liven things up a bit. (Pause) Who's useless now, Amelia?
Meredith (TH): (Smoking a cigarette) Well, he's no Sam Wheat.
-------------------
The first idea I had about using Tom was a lot more complicated than the story here. The complete story would take at least 1,000 words, and if at all possible, I'd like to finish the story in one or more of the remaining prompts. I've never seen Ghost so I don't know how memorable that character's name is, but it seemed like since that's one of Meredith's desert island movies she would refer to him by name and not "that guy from Ghost" or "Patrick Swayze's character from Ghost."
I said I was going to try to wait to post my entry this week until Saturday or Sunday, and I made it to Friday. Although I didn't meet my goal, I did better than I did the first 3 weeks. One thing that will help me to hold off posting is that the extra time I spent tweaking my entry before posting it made it a ton better than it was originally was. Even if it still sucks, it's a hundred times less sucky than it originally was.
This week, hardly anyone posted their entry until the last few hours before the deadline. I can't imagine doing that. Besides worrying that someone else would post a similar and no doubt superior entry based on the same idea as me with no time to come up with something else, with my luck my Internet would probably go out and then I'd miss the deadline. I sent in my votes a little bit ago for week 4 and I had 3 favorites, and 5 more that I also liked a whole bunch. It's funny how in the test threads so many people are self-deprecating about their entries, that the entry sucks, or they won't get any votes. The other contest participants are all insanely smart, creative, and funny, and they're still very humble about their talent. As a non-writer who's not nearly as smart, creative, or funny as everyone else, I know that I have no chance of winning a prize in the contest, and I'd be pleased to find out I got a single vote over the course of the entire contest, or at least know that no one sent emails asking that I be blocked from the contest for my lame entries that are wasting people's time. Anyway, the week 5 prompt was posted yesterday, and so far I've had probably a hundred ideas for it, although I don't think any of them have been particularly good.
My 100th blog post and The Beast With A Billion Backs
It took just over a year, but this is my 100th blog post. I don't have anything special to post for this. These 100 blog posts have gotten a total of 3 comments - yay! - so here's hoping for at least 3 more comments on my posts over the coming year.
Tonight I watched the new Futurama movie The Beast With A Billion Backs. It was pretty good, although I don't think it was as good as the first Futurama movie, Bender's Big Score. There was an awesome deleted scene (storyboarded only) where it was St. Asimov Day in New New York. I wish they had included that in the movie. The DVD also included the cut scenes from the Futurama PS2 game. The cut scenes, along with a little bit of game play footage, added up to a full 30 minutes. Although the animation was crummy computer animation, the story was awesome. I think it was probably even better than the story from the movie. Plus, even though I think I remember that the reviews said the game was mediocre, from the footage it looked pretty cool. I checked online and the game is out of print now and is pretty expensive, although maybe the price of it will come down now that the cut scenes are all included on this new DVD.
Tonight I watched the new Futurama movie The Beast With A Billion Backs. It was pretty good, although I don't think it was as good as the first Futurama movie, Bender's Big Score. There was an awesome deleted scene (storyboarded only) where it was St. Asimov Day in New New York. I wish they had included that in the movie. The DVD also included the cut scenes from the Futurama PS2 game. The cut scenes, along with a little bit of game play footage, added up to a full 30 minutes. Although the animation was crummy computer animation, the story was awesome. I think it was probably even better than the story from the movie. Plus, even though I think I remember that the reviews said the game was mediocre, from the footage it looked pretty cool. I checked online and the game is out of print now and is pretty expensive, although maybe the price of it will come down now that the cut scenes are all included on this new DVD.
Two bits of news from the music world
Today I found out two things from the music world, one good and one bad.
First the bad: It was announced in April, although I just found out today, that RiotBecki and Rosay, 2 of the 3 members of The Pipettes, are no longer in the band, and have been replaced by two other singers. I really liked the band's debut album, and I'll check out their next album when it's released, but I'm not optimistic.
The good: The yet untitled 3rd album by Dido is scheduled for release on September 23, 2008. That's less than 3 months from today!
Edit (8/5/08): Apparently Dido's 3rd album has been pushed back to November 4, 2008. At this rate I'll be surprised if it's released before the end of the year.
First the bad: It was announced in April, although I just found out today, that RiotBecki and Rosay, 2 of the 3 members of The Pipettes, are no longer in the band, and have been replaced by two other singers. I really liked the band's debut album, and I'll check out their next album when it's released, but I'm not optimistic.
The good: The yet untitled 3rd album by Dido is scheduled for release on September 23, 2008. That's less than 3 months from today!
Edit (8/5/08): Apparently Dido's 3rd album has been pushed back to November 4, 2008. At this rate I'll be surprised if it's released before the end of the year.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Today is June 26 and...
1. My AVG Free 7.5 just updated successfully, and I didn't get that annoying pop-up that updates would not be available after June 25.
Edit: D'oh, I spoke too soon. About 5 minutes after the update I got the pop-up, and it still said June 25. I checked the date of the update, and it was released yesterday. I might have to update to 8.0 after all. :(
2. Last night I finished the first draft of my entry for week 4 of NA's Summer Hiatus contest. I'm going to tweak it a little today, and then I'll be ready to post it. But I'm going to try really hard not to. Even though, logically, I know that it's very improbable that anyone is going to post an entry with the same basic idea, I have an irrational feeling that if I don't post it soon that that's exactly what's going to happen.
3. This is awesome.
Edit: D'oh, I spoke too soon. About 5 minutes after the update I got the pop-up, and it still said June 25. I checked the date of the update, and it was released yesterday. I might have to update to 8.0 after all. :(
2. Last night I finished the first draft of my entry for week 4 of NA's Summer Hiatus contest. I'm going to tweak it a little today, and then I'll be ready to post it. But I'm going to try really hard not to. Even though, logically, I know that it's very improbable that anyone is going to post an entry with the same basic idea, I have an irrational feeling that if I don't post it soon that that's exactly what's going to happen.
3. This is awesome.
Monday, June 23, 2008
George Carlin, RIP.
George Carlin was one of my favorite stand-up comedians, and other than the simple fact that today the word is a much less funnier place, I don't really have anything else to say.
Jessica Hagy of indexed put it well, as usual.
RIP, funnyman.
Jessica Hagy of indexed put it well, as usual.
RIP, funnyman.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Northern Attack's 2008 Summer Hiatus Contest - Week 3
I had a much more difficult time than normal deciding on which 3 entries to vote for from week 2. I had 1 favorite, and 7 that were close behind.
The prompt from Week #3: Congratulations, Nard-Wipe!
My entry:
Conference room. Everyone is sitting except for Dwight, Jim, Phyllis, Stanley, and Andy, who are standing in a line, and Michael, who is standing separately and looks really excited.
Michael: All Dunder Mifflin Scranton salespeople, please take one step forward.
A few glances are shared between them, then they begin to do so.
Michael: Not so fast, Andy!
Michael's face can barely contain his smile. Andy's face goes pale.
Michael: Anyone want to guess why?
Meredith: Because of all that damn singing?
Creed: The fish on his desk, which are going to waste?
Phyllis: Because he got engaged to one of his fellow employees, one who didn't disclose her relationship to HR?
Angela covers her eyes with her hand.
Michael: No, no, and no. It's because Dunder Mifflin is opening a branch in Ithaca, NY, and Andy is going to be the regional manager!
Andy dances obnoxiously for a moment.
Besides some groans, there is little other reaction.
Andy (Singing):
“I've paid my dues
Time after time
I've done my sentence
But committed no crime
And bad mistakes
I've made a few
I've had my share of sand kicked in my face
But I've come through
[I am the champion], my friends”
Andy tries to high five several people, but only Michael high fives him.
Andy (TH): The late Cornell professor Carl Sagan once said, “Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.” I wonder what incredible thing is next for me.
Angela (TH): I've made a huge mistake.
----------
Before the contest I decided I would try to always submit my entries on Saturday or Sunday to make sure if I had a good idea in the later half of the week I wouldn't be SOL because I had already submitted my entry. The first two weeks I submitted my entry on Thursday, and got lucky only having 1 major regret, but this time I submitted my entry on Monday night and had a lot of regrets as the week went by. Still, I'm not sure if I'd have done it differently even if I could. I got an idea I liked and went with it. But I'm really going to try to hold off submitting my entry for week 4 until Saturday or Sunday.
The prompt from Week #3: Congratulations, Nard-Wipe!
My entry:
Conference room. Everyone is sitting except for Dwight, Jim, Phyllis, Stanley, and Andy, who are standing in a line, and Michael, who is standing separately and looks really excited.
Michael: All Dunder Mifflin Scranton salespeople, please take one step forward.
A few glances are shared between them, then they begin to do so.
Michael: Not so fast, Andy!
Michael's face can barely contain his smile. Andy's face goes pale.
Michael: Anyone want to guess why?
Meredith: Because of all that damn singing?
Creed: The fish on his desk, which are going to waste?
Phyllis: Because he got engaged to one of his fellow employees, one who didn't disclose her relationship to HR?
Angela covers her eyes with her hand.
Michael: No, no, and no. It's because Dunder Mifflin is opening a branch in Ithaca, NY, and Andy is going to be the regional manager!
Andy dances obnoxiously for a moment.
Besides some groans, there is little other reaction.
Andy (Singing):
“I've paid my dues
Time after time
I've done my sentence
But committed no crime
And bad mistakes
I've made a few
I've had my share of sand kicked in my face
But I've come through
[I am the champion], my friends”
Andy tries to high five several people, but only Michael high fives him.
Andy (TH): The late Cornell professor Carl Sagan once said, “Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.” I wonder what incredible thing is next for me.
Angela (TH): I've made a huge mistake.
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Before the contest I decided I would try to always submit my entries on Saturday or Sunday to make sure if I had a good idea in the later half of the week I wouldn't be SOL because I had already submitted my entry. The first two weeks I submitted my entry on Thursday, and got lucky only having 1 major regret, but this time I submitted my entry on Monday night and had a lot of regrets as the week went by. Still, I'm not sure if I'd have done it differently even if I could. I got an idea I liked and went with it. But I'm really going to try to hold off submitting my entry for week 4 until Saturday or Sunday.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Saturday, June 14, 2008
The final cylon is...
Laura Roslin? That's my best guess right now, anyway. D'Anna said that 4 are in the fleet, so assuming it's not someone who died earlier (e.g. Zak Adama, Kendra Shaw, Ellen Tigh, or Cally) then I think that means the 5th was on the base ship, and that only leaves two major character possibilities: Roslin or Baltar. During the time when D'Anna was purposely dying so she could download and try to see the final five, she made a drawing of the final five, and while the features are indistinct, 2 of them appear to be women, and since so far we only know 1 woman of the final 5 (Torrie), Roslin remains a possible candidate. Also, a couple episodes ago when D'Anna was talking to Roslin for the first time after being unboxed she casually told Roslin that she was one of the final five, and then said she was joking. This could be her way of seeing whether Roslin knew she was a cylon or not.
After the episode, in the preview for the rest of the season, Tigh says in a scraggly voice, "You're the fifth." The way he says it seems like it's someone close to him, which would seem to rule out Roslin, and suggest someone like Admiral Adama or his dead wife Ellen. The latter possibility would go along with the idea that the final cylon is a woman. Maybe a copy of her is on Earth and he's the first to see her.
In any case, last night's episode was frakking awesome. I didn't even know it was the mid-season finale until halfway through or so when it came back from commercial and saw the bar at the bottom describing it as such. Apparently the second half of Season 4 isn't going to start airing for at least another 7 months. :(
After the episode, in the preview for the rest of the season, Tigh says in a scraggly voice, "You're the fifth." The way he says it seems like it's someone close to him, which would seem to rule out Roslin, and suggest someone like Admiral Adama or his dead wife Ellen. The latter possibility would go along with the idea that the final cylon is a woman. Maybe a copy of her is on Earth and he's the first to see her.
In any case, last night's episode was frakking awesome. I didn't even know it was the mid-season finale until halfway through or so when it came back from commercial and saw the bar at the bottom describing it as such. Apparently the second half of Season 4 isn't going to start airing for at least another 7 months. :(
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Northern Attack's 2008 Summer Hiatus Contest - Week 2
The entries for the Week #1's prompt were incredible. Right after the deadline ended I spent a couple hours listening to all the original songs while reading the parody lyrics. That was fun. Then I had to decide which 3 I was going to vote for. It was fun reading them all, but not fun trying to pick 3 favorites. I eventually got it down to 7, then 5, then finally 3. I changed my mind on the 3rd one a couple times, but finally made up my mind. Last year, if I remember correctly, only like 7 of the 24 entries I voted on over the course of the competition were on the overall leader board, so it'll be interesting to see how similar my votes are to the overall top picks each week.
Here's the prompt for Week #2, which was posted the other day.
Week #2: Karen's Last Words
My entry:
Karen is in the break room getting a cup of coffee. After taking a few sips, she notices a notepad on one of the tables. She goes over to it and sees a page with her and Pam's names at the top, with attributes listed under each. She then looks at some of the other pages, and sees pages and pages of M&Ms drawn as sexy women. She realizes it's Kevin's notepad and decides to confront him about it. Before doing so she first has another cup of coffee.
Karen approaches Kevin who is sitting at his desk looking at his monitor.
Kevin: (Quietly) Peggy... nice.
Karen: KEVIN!
Kevin quickly clicks his mouse. Karen shoves the notepad in front of his face.
Karen: What is this?
Kevin looks at the notepad, then around his desk, then up at Karen.
Kevin: Hey!
Karen: Well?
Kevin glances over at Jim, then looks down.
Kevin: I can't tell you.
Karen: Yes you will tell me, Kevin. One way or another.
Karen smiles. Kevin perks up.
Later. Camera close-up on Kevin's face.
Kevin: Oh, yes. That's it. Don't stop.
Camera zooms out. Kevin is receiving a foot massage from Karen. Both are fully clothed, and she has on yellow kitchen gloves and a white paper mask.
Kevin: You know what would be great, is if you took those gloves off, and I took my socks off.
Karen: Don't push it. Anyway, I think that's enough. So spill it.
Kevin rubs his goatee for a moment.
Kevin: Well...
Just then, Pam opens the break room door and sees Karen and Kevin.
Karen: I can explain...
Pam makes a lips zipped motion with her hand.
Karen: (Quietly) Maybe you aren't a bitch after all.
Pam: What?
Karen: Nothing.
Relieved, Karen goes to hug Pam. They hug.
Kevin is watching intently, with a smile on his face.
After they're done hugging, they separate, but then Karen kisses Pam sensually.
Kevin: YES!
Kevin runs to go get his camera.
Pam pushes Karen away.
Karen: You're really going to date him?
Pam nods.
Karen: Ok.
Karen walks away.
Karen (TH): Utica, here I come.
Later. Ryan comes into the break room and looks around for something. He freezes when he sees the empty coffee pot. He goes over and looks inside the funnel.
Ryan: Oh [Bleeped].
----------
MP3 Link | Alternate Link
--------------------
This definitely wasn't my first idea, and it changed a ton as I worked on it. Initially there was a section where Karen talked to Tom (since it's an alternate universe), and there was no Pam bit at the end. I added that after completing a draft and then re-reading the prompt and realizing it did not fulfill the basic requirements of the prompt. I know my entry isn't very creative, and the "important" Pam bit isn't creative at all, but now I can relax and enjoy the other awesome entries.
ETA (6/13): The regrets begin.
Karen (TH): ...
Karen just sits there with a puzzled look on her face. She then gets up and leaves.
Here's the prompt for Week #2, which was posted the other day.
Week #2: Karen's Last Words
My entry:
Karen is in the break room getting a cup of coffee. After taking a few sips, she notices a notepad on one of the tables. She goes over to it and sees a page with her and Pam's names at the top, with attributes listed under each. She then looks at some of the other pages, and sees pages and pages of M&Ms drawn as sexy women. She realizes it's Kevin's notepad and decides to confront him about it. Before doing so she first has another cup of coffee.
Karen approaches Kevin who is sitting at his desk looking at his monitor.
Kevin: (Quietly) Peggy... nice.
Karen: KEVIN!
Kevin quickly clicks his mouse. Karen shoves the notepad in front of his face.
Karen: What is this?
Kevin looks at the notepad, then around his desk, then up at Karen.
Kevin: Hey!
Karen: Well?
Kevin glances over at Jim, then looks down.
Kevin: I can't tell you.
Karen: Yes you will tell me, Kevin. One way or another.
Karen smiles. Kevin perks up.
Later. Camera close-up on Kevin's face.
Kevin: Oh, yes. That's it. Don't stop.
Camera zooms out. Kevin is receiving a foot massage from Karen. Both are fully clothed, and she has on yellow kitchen gloves and a white paper mask.
Kevin: You know what would be great, is if you took those gloves off, and I took my socks off.
Karen: Don't push it. Anyway, I think that's enough. So spill it.
Kevin rubs his goatee for a moment.
Kevin: Well...
Just then, Pam opens the break room door and sees Karen and Kevin.
Karen: I can explain...
Pam makes a lips zipped motion with her hand.
Karen: (Quietly) Maybe you aren't a bitch after all.
Pam: What?
Karen: Nothing.
Relieved, Karen goes to hug Pam. They hug.
Kevin is watching intently, with a smile on his face.
After they're done hugging, they separate, but then Karen kisses Pam sensually.
Kevin: YES!
Kevin runs to go get his camera.
Pam pushes Karen away.
Karen: You're really going to date him?
Pam nods.
Karen: Ok.
Karen walks away.
Karen (TH): Utica, here I come.
Later. Ryan comes into the break room and looks around for something. He freezes when he sees the empty coffee pot. He goes over and looks inside the funnel.
Ryan: Oh [Bleeped].
----------
MP3 Link | Alternate Link
--------------------
This definitely wasn't my first idea, and it changed a ton as I worked on it. Initially there was a section where Karen talked to Tom (since it's an alternate universe), and there was no Pam bit at the end. I added that after completing a draft and then re-reading the prompt and realizing it did not fulfill the basic requirements of the prompt. I know my entry isn't very creative, and the "important" Pam bit isn't creative at all, but now I can relax and enjoy the other awesome entries.
ETA (6/13): The regrets begin.
Karen (TH): ...
Karen just sits there with a puzzled look on her face. She then gets up and leaves.
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