Ars: Windows 7 E: no upgrades for the EU [...] Both Windows XP and Windows Vista come with Internet Explorer, and the upgrade editions of Windows 7 were never tested to handle the installation of Windows 7 without Internet Explorer....
King5: The group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals wants the flyswatter in chief to try taking a more humane attitude the next time he's bedeviled by a fly in the White House. TGDaily: Global warming is irreversible, U.S....
Slate: Palin-Letterman: Who won? [...] Anyone who's been scoring Letterman v. Palin knows that it has been a ratings boon to both sides: Last week, David Letterman told a tasteless joke. Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin flipped out. Letterman apologized. Palin...
Sort of sounds like "don't run with scissors" doesn't it? A bunch of milestones game and went over the weekend, without so much as a letter typed on the blog... been in WA for five years this past Thursday. Been...
New York Times: E.U. Criticizes Microsoft Plan to Remove Browser Let me get this straight: you want to fine Microsoft for bundling a browser because... well, I don't know why - you say it's over choice of browser and that...
ABC.com: Federal Officials Order Banks to Freeze Millions in Online Poker Winnings Be it Obama - or even the other big O in the country (Oprah) - can you go fix this moronic policy? If we're in a recession and...
Over the last year or so, Jolene and I have been to a number of places for breakfast on the west and east side of Lake Washington. Call it a tick from my childhood but I dig on brunch... I've...
Zune.net: ZuneHD Huh. Not all that often that you can be surprised by your own company. The HD radio is interesting. So is it the big 3.3" screen, especially for movie viewing; screen size is how the Zune 80 made...
Ahhhh! A poker post! It has been a while but this was what was likely to be a once in a lifetime this... after all, I don't play in non-tournaments games in casinos very often and you need to play...
FOX Sports: The 11-0 victory was Fico's 43rd no-hitter, fourth consecutive perfect game, and seventh this season. She has a career ERA of .006. Fico (90-2 career) pitched another no-hitter on Thursday as Masuk won 10-0, but her streak of...
Sorry to do this, but I have to pull the trigger on the "I Told You This Was A Problem Waiting To Happen" gun: how wide spread would the zOMG-we-can-stop-it coming Swine Flu pandemic if we didn't have so many...
MSNBC.com: Rachel Maddow Show Watch it and then ask yourself: how can someone take on a name without doing one Internet search? I give props to Rachel for not breaking down (in the first six minutes). I cannot believe they...
Went snowshoeing this weekend for the first time. Drove from 75 and sunny in the lowlands to 120" snow base at the Summit in Snoqualmie. Was told by one group of people "you can't shoe here - this is private...
Sales tax in King County Washington is now 9.5%. I don't know if I'm more appalled by the actual number or the fact that there's no public outrage by the rise in sales tax. Again. Or still. I need to...
Not sure where 2009 is going but it's obvious that it's not being channelled into the blog... and I'm not even going to apologize for it. The simple truth is that there hasn't been much going on that needs Ranting...
Facebook: In honor of the mother of the octuplets, Denny's is offering a new breakfast meal: The Octo-Slam. You get fourteen eggs, no sausage, and the guy next to you has to pay the bill. Ha!...
This isn't the first blog post that you'll see with a "Whoa, where did February go?" and probably won't be the last. I just noticed two things today: a) there's new Apple hardware that's been released and b) I haven't...
CNN.com: Sharpton blasts Post cartoon linking stimulus bill to chimp Right, because politicians of all color are never compared to chimps or rhinos or donkeys or elephants. Where was Sharpton when Bush was being compared to Hitler? Isn't being compared...
TVSquad: Michael Phelps recently went from big-time role-model to big-eared pothead in about the time it took for some d-bag with a cameraphone to press "send." This got me thinking about role models in general. Like it or not, most...
New York Times: Four executives of Google begin trial Tuesday in Milan on criminal charges of defamation and privacy violation in regard to a video posted on Google’s Italian site. It's because of cases like these that hosting companies want...
Maybe it's just because I wasn't around for Kennedy or that we didn't have all today's technology for past presidents, but either way, I have to ask: are we having an inauguration or a coronation on Tuesday? In all honesty,...
TimesOnline: Microsoft poised to announce job losses Cheers for not fact checking. I mean, it's not all bunk - yes, the Zune 30 had a Leap Year related bug and yes, Microsoft is going to be at CES... the rest?...
Seattle Times: Seattle refuses to use salt; roads "snow packed" by design [...] To hear the city's spin, Seattle's road crews are making "great progress" in clearing the ice-caked streets. But it turns out "plowed streets" in Seattle actually means...
When Starbucks bought Seattle's Best Coffee (SBC) I sobbed a little bit. SBC had a great mocha syrup, an excellent matcha latte, and a killer Cold Brew vanilla latte but I figured Starbucks would stamp their mermaid logo all over...
Over the last five months Jolene and I have been fostering kittens. As someone that has alergic reactions to cats (and dogs) and yet can't stay away from them, this sounded like an awesome idea. You go to the shelter,...
MSNBC: Connecticut on Wednesday became the second state to legalize gay marriage after a judge ruled that same-sex couples may pick up marriage license forms at town and city clerks' offices statewide. And yet you still can't buy any alcohol...
What if... Obama loses? Yeah, I know - the polls have been telling us that it's mathematically impossible for months, right? I've been watching people around here, for the last few weeks because it's an interesting battleground... King County (home...
Culture time bitches! Went to the ACT theatre the other night with Jolene to see Becky's New Car. Yes I went willingly. This is the third play I've seen in Seattle that is not considered "Broadway" class and I have...
You stupid, re-election-focused motherfuckers, I'd like to offer a review on your performance today. You are failing your country and the people that have voted for you. You are not doing the job you were elected to do. You are...
Domo-kun has sold out to Target! Looks like the fuzzy one is the official Halloween Mascot, while the cat-with-no-mouth is all over the store in all her pink glory. The invasion has begun continues......
Kotaku: Jack Thompson Disbarred As much as you'd like to cheer that Thompson finally got his - and that FL finally got rid of a rather unstable and unethical lawyer - please don't cheer. In fact, gamers should be very,...
I saw this last week and I sort of expected it to go away, but... well, I was way off base. Mr. T was recently in a Snickers commercial in the UK where he basically fires Snickers bars at a...
Talk about outages, I originally meant to talk about a coming trip to Victoria... last weekend. Which means that I've been there and back again - rather than a preview, it's more of a recap... How was it?...
Last minute, I told TiVo to grab the All Star game tonight... not that I usually watch it, mind, but seeing as its being held in New York, I figured it was a great opportunity to see Yankee Stadium in...
The Root: Although I didn't think it was possible, the latest Don Imus controversy is almost as ridiculous as the first one. Imus recently made an off-hand remark on his radio show about Adam "Pacman" Jones' string of arrests, noting...
Decided to go to the Fremont Fair with some friends this weekend... shot for Saturday but after circling for parking for a while (and still not finding a place to park within 1.5 miles) plans changed to Sunday. Parking still...
Today, I spent over $100 on gas... yes, this is one of the pain points having of having two cars: they can sometimes cycle together and you have to hit the gas station twice in one day. The Jeep was...
Totally missed the WWDC... yes, I said I was looking forward to it - in hindsight, I don't think I missed anything, but you see... I've been in training for the last four days. And not just like "10am-2pm" training....
This is where I was today, saying good bye to an old friend... I'll be much closer to this very building in a year from now. By the way, does anyone have the address for Safeco Field? I feel that...
True, it's the middle of May and I'm sweating in my house. Yes, yesterday was supposed to be the hotter of the days this weekend. Indeed, the forecast screwed the pooch again, seeing as it's 94 degrees in Redmond right...
MSNBC: Microsoft abandons bid to buy Yahoo Wow. I mean, wow. The only other time I can think of Microsoft walking away from a proposed merger was way back, for Intuit (Quicken)... to be honest, I think it's the right...
I had to laugh at a recent news story on TV... it's not often that the local news is forced to admit that what might be "good for the environment" might be "bad for humans." A story a while back...
Furrygoat: Q: What do you get when you cross a browser application with the ability to go offline? A: A client application without any the goodness that the platform (be it Windows or OS X) has to offer. What's wrong...
Has it occurred to anyone else that in The Breakfast Club is the fact that the Geek doesn't end up with one of the women? I mean, the Burn Out gets the Princess; the Jock gets the Headcase. The Geek...
MSNBC: "I send a message to Tibetans in the San Francisco area 'Please do not make any violent activities,'" the Dalai Lama said Thursday morning during a stopover in Tokyo. "Of course, this is an expression of their feelings... No...
Why should people be leery of blind faith in anything, including religion? It's through blind faith that this snaggle-toothed fucker horded 555 women and got laid at will. I have no other explanation - do you?...
ValleyWag: Cheerleader's mom blames YouTube, MySpace for her daughter's beating The 'goat just send this to me via IM, but I heard about it on the radio and I have to say... I look forward to being able to blame...
Mayor Nichols of Seattle is trying to impose a $0.20/per bag surcharge for each paper or plastic bag people use while shopping at food, drug, or variety stores. He pitches this to the public a meer week after wanting to...
KCTV: Man Shooting Hole Through Wall Kills Wife - Deepwater Man Fatally Shoots Wife While Installing Satellite TV How can anyone like this be trusted with a weapon in the first place? Somehow I think this negates natural section, since...
MSNBC: Addicted gambler files $20 million casino suit Her case? Casino management "had a duty to notice her compulsive gambling problem and cut her off." I call bullshit, just on principle alone. True, when she went on a multi-day bender...
*sigh* Props to the guy for taking time to chat about the trade on KISW this morning... based off the story he tells, I'm inclined to believe it. He simply got a better deal from the Rams (and it's a...
Consider this... the KKK has a legally arranged a public protest for something - whatever, it doesn't matter. A counter-protest springs up. At some point after the protest, a hooded KKK member is isolated and beaten by one or more...
Toady via MSNBC: If women ruled the world, everything would change, according to former White House press secretary Dee Dee Myers. Politics would be more collegial. Businesses would be more productive. And communities would be healthier. Empowering women would make...
MSN: Are Starbucks' 'skinny' drinks offensive? [...] Much of the controversy focuses on the use of the term skinny to describe the fat- and sugar-free drink. One blogger, "SassySexyShapely," questioned whether people should be offended by the word. As reported...
International Herald Tribune: Excerpts from Castro's letter [...] For many years I have occupied the honorable position of President. On February 15, 1976 the Socialist Constitution was approved with the free, direct and secret vote of over 95% of the...
I just want to send a big ol' Thank You to the New York Giants for their performance in Super Bowl XLII. Without their help, there would have been a cache of smug and strutting sports fans in Boston and...
MSNBC: Giuliani dropping out of Republican race Meh. Now I have to go take yet another bumper sticker off my Jeep... pah. Either way, this country deserves whatever it gets, after this election, be it the anamatronic whitehead, the "new"...
MSNBC: Sen. Kennedy, Rep. Kennedy endorsing Obama - Ted Kennedy's support was sought by all the Democratic hopefuls Um. Really? I mean does the endorsement of a Kennedy really matter? Teddy is so pickled at this point he could be...
I finally got a chance to see Clerks II last night. Gotta admit it: it was weird seeing Randal and Dante in color but I still enjoyed the movie. The ties to Clerks and Dogma (as well as the other...
oO, a yummy collection of words I get to eat! I took some advice from Steve and ordered the HDMI->DVI cable from XtremeMac, even though I didn't want to. Even though it shouldn't have mattered. Even though I had an...
I'd been putting it off for a while, but I finally went ahead and picked up an HDMI Switch Box. Wait, didn't I already have one? Yeah, I did, but that was for Component inputs... since I got that back...
Just poking my out of my vacation long enough to give a Happy Holidays to y'all... I've been shunning almost all email - work and personal - over the last four days in an attempt to get clean go analog...
Ooh you tasty little things...:Experiments in deliciousness: Bacon chocolate chip cookies with maple cinnamon glaze. Just another example of why bacon should be revered. Oh, and for good measure, I've heard really good things about Bacon Salt. (Yes, they're both...
PCWorld: The 15 Biggest Tech Disappointments of 2007 These much-ballyhooed products, sites, and services, it turned out, left much to be desired. PCWorld should be embarrassed to call themselves a publication house... I haven't seen facts this abused in support...
Perspective is a powerful thing... Normally, I'd be convinced that someone or something is out to get me, yet I'm feeling a little lucky in some ways and uberlucky in others. It all depends on perspective....
Fox Sports: Taylor's death a grim reminder for us all. There's a reason I call them the Black KKK. The pain, the fear and the destruction are all the same. Wow. I mean, consider what happened to Imus, when he...
Spotted at the local Sanrio store, I saw this new character from the Hello Kitty universe: Kuromi. You mark my words: when Sanrio gets tired of us and finally decides to take over the world, this will be the soldier...
For reasons that remain unclear to me, I decided to have some carpet replaced with hardwood in my house. The work was originally supposed to be done in October (during the quiet caused by the reorg) but there was a...
Hartford Courant: [...] that was the story out of Australia Thursday, where a firm that trains Santa Clauses reportedly told recruits to avoid "ho, ho, ho," in part because it conjures American slang for a prostitute, according to The Daily...
Gizmodo: In an effort to combat rampant piracy in China, Paramount and Warner Brothers have begun selling legitimate DVDs there for only $3. And these titles are not some bargain bin Steven Segal DVDs either, rather new releases that are...
Seems that a previous Rant about how dating sucks has been highly ranked by the major search engines. What I mean is that if you search for "dating sucks" using any of the three biggest search engines, you'll end up...
MSNBC: A 19-year-old man suspected of killing a woman who answered an online ad for a baby sitter was charged Tuesday with second-degree murder. [...] Olson had gone to Anderson's home Thursday to inquire about a baby-sitting job she had...
while (life) { if (rand() == GetCurrentTicksFromBirth()) break; years++; } Should be as simple as that, but it never is. Sorry - I've just been rather... reflective lately. Changing things around my house. Toying with shaving my head for Halloween....
Ah, there's nothing like the crisp air of autumn to make you truly enjoy a re-org within your own team. Yes, there's been a shuffle which now begs the big question of now what is Randy doing?...
Meh. I was going to post a whole long diatribe about some rock guy that was on KISW this morning, calling for the removal of our electoral college system of electing presidents (something about "who are these guys anyway?" and...
Number of days since contacting your publisher about re-printing your book so it sucks less: 365 Cost of re-printing the book: about $200 Number of pages changed in the year long re-printing effort: 0 Years at current sales rate before...
I wanted to take a moment to thank the Yankees for winning on Sunday night. After the Seahawks put up as many points as I had in football on Sunday morning, I fully expected to have a day of nothing...
I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.Registration code: 9473447 [needed for validation purposes - regular readers, feel free to...
Now that PGR4 has been released there will be a number of new screen shots available for Sony to try and pass off as Gran Turismo 4. In all honesty, PGR4 has surprisingly impressed me. The weather alone is pretty...
Halo 3 is a convenient scapegoat... the truth is that I haven't had much to talk about lately, work has been keeping me busy, and I just finished H3 on Legendary last night. Don't worry though: this is no extended...
I realized something odd about The World According To Garp. In spite of it being such a dark movie, it somehow reminds me of another dramatic epic even thought it was released a full 12 years later. Does anyone else...
I'm officially boycotting the EU. If I want to experience the UK, I'll eat a crumpet and go to Australia. Need the green of Ireland? I live in the Evergreen State - I'll play golf and have a mint shake...
I had trouble sleeping last night... my face was sore from smiling all night. While my soul was at peace, my mind was racing with visions of broken Red Sox fans as they watched a glorious rally in the 8th...
I got a new leather sectional less than a year ago. Ordered it on September 3 but it took a couple of months for it to get here from Italy. Was a simple set up really: seats six people if...
I went to our company meeting yesterday. Someone at Windows Live must have worried about us finding our way to Safeco Field - I noticed this by the home plate entrance: Today, I returned to my office......
Wow. Been over a week since my last post. Am I bored of blogging? Nah. So busy that I haven't had time to blog? Something like that. Busy with school work? Nah - BioShock, actually... which is kinda funny since...
If you are paying $180 for cable and Internet access do you think it's a good or bad idea to screw up your product offering enough that a customer has no alternative but to call for customer service, reminding them...
Has anyone else noticed that Forrest Gump is consistenlty wearing blue in every scene in the movie? Well, except for the scenes that require an army uniform... Every scene that he is dressed in his own clothes, it's always a...
MSNBC: Debate on lower drinking age bubbling up Proponents say current restriction drives teen alcohol use underground. Over the strong objection of federal safety officials, a quiet movement to lower the legal drinking age to 18 is taking root as...
omg!: Danica McKellar has a message for girls: Cute and smart is better than cute and dumb. McKellar, who played Winnie on the 1990s television show "The Wonder Years," is coming out with a book, "Math Doesn't Suck," to encourage...
I never thought I'd get to this level of frustration with an online company, but I getting extremely close to activating my "legal benefits" package at work and suing Expedia.com for the on going debacle that was my vacation. Updated:...
CNN.com: Lindsay Lohan arrested again I don't know much about Lohan. Maybe it's because there were enough Paris headlines in the news that as soon as I saw that smug blonde face I clicked away a page or changed a...
It's not often that I ask the question "Why me?" because I usually know why things happen to me. A bad decision. Not checking the expiration date on a carton of eggs. Picking blue instead of red. Moving too quickly...
MSNBC: Diet pill’s icky side effects keep users honest [...] Threat of embarrassment forces Alli users to eat healthy — or else [...] "(I)’ve pooped my pants 3 times today, and sorry to get descriptive but it even leaked onto...
Happy Fourth of July. And Happy Post iPhone Launch weekend. Sorry for the quiet time too lately - I finally got to take the vacation that got postponed from the end of April. The recap follows......
This was a real subject line from a piece of SPAM that I noticed while cleaning out my Junk Mail folder. What a hoot. In other news, Trixie tells me that if I persist in wearing on wearing denim shorts...
YouTube: The Price is Right - Wardrobe Malfunction This is something out of the late 70's if I had to guess, considering the clothing, the hairstyles and that Bob Barker's hair is naturally dark. And since Bob left the show...
Ken Levine: If THE SOPRANOS were on a major network The finale would be at least two hours. There would be a one hour clip show hosted by Bob Costas preceding it. There would be live coverage of the cast...
Rudy: Rudy's 12 Commitments To America Ambitious, I'll say that. What I like about it more is that here's an itemized list of "what I plan to do, if you elect me" which is something that I don't remember seeing...
During high school, did you ever date a chick for a while and never get her into the sack? Come close, have some good times, but ya never get her into bed? And then one night, she hops out of...
CNN.com: In a rare public discussion of her husband's infidelity, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton said Monday that she probably could not have gotten through her marital troubles without relying on her faith in God. Translation: "I want to...
How do you know you're devoted to a TV show? When you watch the low-def version of the penultimate show on the east coast feed, rather than waiting another three hours for the HD west coast feed. I won't say...
CNN: Religious conservative leader James Dobson will sit out the 2008 presidential election if former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani is the Republican presidential nominee, he wrote Thursday in an online column. In a piece published on the conservative Web...
I've gotten a few people that have forwarded emails about how to "boycott" gas on May 15, in an effort to protest high gas prices. Seems the same thing was done on April 15, and someone somewhere thinks that it...
Last August, Amazon listed the Ambient Stock Orb for sale at $20. It's a neat little thing, the Orb. Especially at $20. At its MSRP of $150, it's not all that compelling. I ordered one. A couple of days later,...
A week of family stuffs, most of it sad or at least worrisome... Too many days of work in a row... 60 hours of work already this week if you exclude Sunday... overloaded. Mini-break coming up this weekend sans notebook...
Looking over this week's ads from Target - and debating on picking up a copy of Pokémon before flying to Vegas this weekend - I noticed a "Diet Coke Plus" on one of the pages... what's the "plus"? That's what...
Wired: 'Several Korean youths who knew Cho Seung Hui from his high school days said he was a fan of violent video games, particularly Counterstrike, a hugely popular online game published by Microsoft, in which players join terrorism or counterterrorism...
I'm at Borders, in their cafe section. I'm reading a book I ordered years ago at Amazon while I wait for my Jeep to get repaired up the road. On my table are three books I bought and a ColdBrewed...
Actually, yes, I did. In light of the fallout of the Imus Debacle I'm reminded just how much I dislike Media Whores of all race, gender, and creed. Consider Al Sharpton. The last time I looked, Al Baby doesn't play...
The other day I was reading something about how some guy was in trouble for using the N-word on air. MSNBC just the other day posted something about about a pilot that got suspended from his job for "dropping the...
After over seven years of waiting, the end of The Sopranos is at hand, starting with the first episode of the second part of Season 6. Hell yeah, I'm excited. For those of you that have missed the entire series...
Meh. No, no, really - that's what my shirt says today. And it's spot on. I feel totally randomized today. Like late to work, got the wrong coffee, picked out the wrong breakfast, drove the wrong car - even blew...
Just noticed it's been almost a week since I posted something... I've been somewhat busy with work related items - which will get rolled into a future post, of course - but one thing that caught my eye has been...
MSNBC: A passenger in first class woke up to a shock when he found himself sitting near a corpse on a British Airways flight, British newspapers reported on Monday. Paul Trinder, 54, said cabin crew moved the body of the...
Ugh. I'm sick. And yes, as a guy, if I admit that I'm sick, then that means it's rather real and moderately serious. Got a Venti tea at Starbucks today, instead of coffee. Been craving ice cream and milk -...
I ask you this: how can San Francisco had good [New York styled] Italian food while most of Washington (or Oregon for that matter) doesn't? They have some semblance of Italian and some items are good, but navigating a menu...
Word on the street is that CompUSA is closing over half their stores, starting tomorrow. I went over to their locations page: if it's accurate, the only store staying in WA is the one in Spokane. The only surprising thing...
MSNBC: Report: Family ties Al Sharpton to Thurmond Paper: Civil rights activist descended from slaves held by late senator’s kin [...] NEW YORK - Genealogists have found that civil rights activist the Rev. Al Sharpton is a descendent of a...
I have no words... what can you say about a dog that was so sweet and got terminally sick so suddenly that the vet cried when it was all over? So very, very wrong....
CNN: The House of Representatives passes a non-binding resolution rejecting President Bush's plan to send more troops to Iraq. And now, a memo to a higher office; open letter to the powers that be: Get back to work you hosers!...
Ah, well... Baka suffered The Big Flush last night. Something about seeing a fish lying on the bottom of a bowl like a sleeping pup for 12+ hours and no missing food tells me his race has been run. And...
Say you were standing behind a younger woman[1] while in a long line at a coffee shop and you noticed a nickel-sized hole in the back of her jeans, up in the corner where the back pocket is sewn. A...
Personally, I think could overload this server with the pitfalls and perils of dating. A chunk of my book tells a small part of the pain that I've had to endure over the years... the planned second edition of it...
CartoonBank: New Yorker Cartoon (Next to Starbucks is Starbucks Kids, with kids jumping all over the place.) I said it first: now that non-smoking sections are moot with most restaurants going entirely smoke free, there are some places that should...
This made my entire day. MSNBC: Giuliani: ‘A real good chance’ of 2008 bid. Former New York mayor said he is leaning toward presidential campaign I don't care which party he runs for - I'm all in. In fact, if...
I've been seeing a good deal about the war in Iraq and how Congress is up in arms about sending more troops to Iraq. Do you see the point? I hope you do. The point is a simple one... Re-Election....
Seattle PI: A man who tried unsuccessfully to buy an assault rifle pleaded not guilty Monday to charges that he stalked and threatened to kill a teenage barista [at a Starbucks in the Westwood Village Shopping Center in West Seattle]...
Watching a recap-blurb on American Idol, on Q13Fox, they showed a Seattle hopeful in her first round audition. I had forgotten that American Idol was more like The Gong Show early on rather than Star Search... I've never watched it....
I gladly say Welcome Back to television. 24 is in it's new season (and is so much better to watch via DVR than with commercials!) and is already as good as I want it to be. Rome has returned as...
ZOMG. I saw something the other day on cable that made me raise an eyebrow... after a movie ended on cable, they ran the credits like always. I was working on homework so I was slow grabbing the remote. After...
MSNBC: Seventeen-year-old Patrick Agin often spends a week whittling a single arrow, and he’s learning to make chain mail armor by hand. So when it came time to submit a senior yearbook photo, he selected a snapshot of himself wearing...
After working in an office type environment for the last 14 years or so, I consider myself a veteran of the business world. True some of business only offered what could loosely be called an office. Symantec comes to mind,...
So, I'm watching the fall out from MacWorld in an IRC window, and I have to say that I'm continually surprised by Steve Jobs behavior... I guess I gave him more credit than I should have: I thought he'd have...
I was going to post this before the game tonight, but having watched the game, I find it to be even more fitting... If the Seahawks with the Super Bowl this year, I'ma shave my head. And not just with...
My lost bag was just delivered to me at work. Comical because the guy that called me is like "I wanted to make sure you were home" - uwah? It's 11:07 in the morning... no one from AA told me...
First, explain to me how one out of two bags can get lost on a non-stop flight. Next, explain to me how five days can go by without the bag turning up in either airport. Then, explain to me why...
I played a bit tonight. Two and a half hours, actually, in a tournament of 42 people. Top seven would be paid; I got knocked out at 20th, which has become an all too familiar story, over the last nine...
What's that loud sucking sound you hear? Get used to it. It'll get louder the closer we get to July 4. I swear, that there's only a 0.0001% chance that this movie won't suck. How can I say that based...
Ever stood by a baggage carousel, waiting for your second of two bags, and noticed no one else is left at the carousel? I hadn't before tonight. Yes, for the first time in over a decade of travel, I was...
I went to see it - Rocky Balboa - on opening night. Yes, this would be the sixth Rocky movie, in the overall scheme of things... but to me it's the third. If you saw I and II, you've got...
Whoa a techno-topic that's not in the GeekStuff section? Bet your ass. It happens every now and again. Besides, this isn't about technology - it's about radio. In fact, it's about one particular song and how it's been ripped to...
AOL TV News: Since 1966 WPIX in New York has had the TV yule log market to itself. Now they've got some competition. [...] The INHD Yule log has been airing since 2003 and, since the number of HDTV owners...
Creating Passionate Users: what is the meta-level for a game? Oh yes, fun. Purple Moon got the individual implementation details right, and applied all that they'd learned from the research, but forgot the forest. Fun. Not often that I quote...
Was that a 70mph gust of wind that just made the lights flicker in my house? [Yes, we are having a wind storm at the moment and lights have been flickering all day at home and work.] Or was that...
CNN: NYC health board bans trans fats at restaurants I would have expected to see something like this from Seattle or LA, but New York? Especially since Seattle law seems to have no rational train of thought. A city that...
I've had a blog for over five years now. I've hosted it on a few different types of server over the years. Each had their pros and cons - I originally switched to TypePad so I wouldn't have the pain...
An open letter to all of the people in New England that are sneering, laughing and taunting the pacific northwest over the recent snowfall while frolicking in their strange warm weather: Piss off. We got 2" in Redmond. We also...
Yep. Good thing it never sticks to anything but the grass. Wasn't even enough to keep a line from forming in front of Best Buy again this morning. Damned Wii continues to wreak havoc....
I'm not searching for a Wii any more. After searching for 36 hours, not only am I sick of hearing "no" but I think I'm about to get broadsided by a much larger purchase or two. Even for me there...
MSNBC: A 68-year-old man who almost accompanied Cory Lidle on his fatal flight in New York City last month died in a plane crash in California on Tuesday. WTF?...
BBC News: Rare stamp 'used on US post vote' A rare stamp worth as much as $200,000 (£155,473) may be on an envelope sealed in a ballot box after the US mid-term elections, poll officials say. I've said it once...
What the hell is it with Kerry? Isn't it enough that he lost in 2004? Now he's trying to take out his party in 2006 as well? I swear, Quebec, Massachusetts, and France should unite and become the Land of...
Found this blog post over at DotEverything and words fail me. Most affection I've had thrown my way in a while *g* Who says the blogsphere isn't a happy, useful place!...
CNN: Rose Rock, the mother of comedian Chris Rock, claims she was racially discriminated against when she was seated but ignored for a half hour at a Cracker Barrel restaurant along the South Carolina coast. Discrimination? DISCRIMINATION?! How about just...
Looks like I'm going to be a student again. Nope, not the Doctorate. Ha! Who has time for that? Too many 360 games queued up as it is. Not for another Masters, either - just a few classes that's focused...
It's amused me over the years how some words from the "early" days of chat have become "common" words. Especially when the words are typos. True stuff like :) and l33t were typed like that on purpose but the other...
The Slate: The "international community" has a chance to behave as if the term were more than a polite or ironic euphemism. If there's a single national leader in the world who likes this new development, he hasn't said so....
CNN: North Korea's claim to have tested a nuclear weapon drew widespread condemnation Monday, with the United States calling it potentially a "provocative act" and even close ally China strongly opposing it. Wild shit: US, China, and Russia all agree...
Looks like a new law got passed to "secure" our southern border. Does a big fence make a border more secured? Better than an empty open field or a massive hole in an existing fence, so yeah, I'll say so....
BoingBoing: Bloggers who attended a "smile mob" in Minsk, Belarus, were arrested for coming to the central square and smiling at each other. Some face months in prison. Belarus is an ailing former Soviet state, and it's where my paternal...
Something feels odd. Leaves are starting to change. Temperatures are dropping: I already turned on the heat for my house. Skies are getting cloudier each day, which is normal for this time of year... Oh yeah: I've been spared the...
Had a small part of my east coast ire poke through my laid back west coast veneer during a poker game last night... I don't think it was my fault - in fact, I think it was warranted - but...
CNN: NYC eyes ban on restaurant trans fats Wow. Does that sound insane to anyone else? Is it just me? Has insanity taken over the city over there? What's next? A law that keeps Exotic Dancers four feet away from...
After landing in CT last week, I was stuck in traffic - shock! - and was station surfing on my radio... landed on 95.1, which was very faint seeing as I was still east of Hartford. They were playing something...
Question: when you're walking in a parking lot, is it the responsibility of the pedestrian or the driver to avoid collisions while opening car doors? In WA, you only have to yield right of way to pedestrians if they're in...
What the hell are people thinking?! The engineers that have been involved with Installation these days should be submitted for testicular shock therapy....
ABCNews: Video on demand. Caught this short interview with Rudy Giuliani on this morning's news, as part of "Five Years Ago Today" montage that's going through the nation today... he's just a class act. Polished politician? Doesn't sound slick or...
I just realized it this morning... twenty years ago to the day, I was wearing a knitted tie and an ungodly light blue blazer, while actively being psychologically abused, during first full week of high school. I don't know if...
CNN: "Everything I do is blown out of proportion and it really hurts my feelings," said [Paris] Hilton, who called the [arrested for DUI] incident "nothing." I typed about twelve different things under this quote, but have deleted each one...
I picked up my MINI Cooper exactly two weeks ago. Not a Mac mini; I've had that for months now. What are my impressions, thoughts, and feelings on it? Generally speaking, I'm impressed and on many levels....
Washington Post: Catching Up with Robbie Rist That's Robbie Rist who played cousin Oliver on The Brady Bunch. Worth the jump just to see what Robbie looks like today... Speaking of, know they kid that was in The Toy and...
How about the readers here being smarter than most of the press (and the blogger) about JonBennet, eh? Silly tosser has had his charges dropped! Meh. And if I hear one more fuckin' thing about Katrina and New Orleans, I'm...
Marketing is one of those skills that is rather... intangible. Subjective at any rate. Or at least elusive. In years past, I had the annoying habit of finishing projects on time. I was even accused of padding my estimates for...
Brought the Jetta back to the dealership today, terminating the lease a couple of weeks early... it's already paid for and some might thing it foolish to not keep it around the last couple of weeks, but having three cars...
Sunday Night Baseball on ESPN? Yeah, it was, but it didn't finish until it was Monday Morning Baseball. Am I surprised? Not after the marathon the Yankees and Red Sox played on Friday, setting the record for the longest 9-inning...
This questions has been flung at me a lot lately. You see, my new MINI Cooper came in a couple of weeks ago and I just picked it up today. The problem with that is that the lease on my...
I've often described Connecticut as the wasteland between New York City and Boston. As each respective metropolis grew, the land between them has shrunk leaving and divided between the two critical masses. Consequently, the culture of CT has often been...
CNN.com: Suspect confesses to killing JonBenet Ramsey There's a whole lotta people in the world currently chewing on they own shoe, having addimantly accused JonBenet's parents for her murder for over a decade. To that I say: HA!...
CNN: Paris Hilton: I'm going celibate Don't get too excited... she's still fucking. Well, fucking up stuff. She fucks up this here article by trying to say that she's "very shy," that she "has had sex with only two men...
Apple Stores are now offline. Flickr is filled with Apple banners (most of them joking about Vista). I'm logged into two read-only IRC channels on two different IRC servers... what does this mean? The Jobs Distortion Field is beginning to...
Workout Guy: Yeah, well, I've got a performance problem... wait... [looks down] does this thing work? Yeah, so I've got this performance problem... and I told her that... we gave it some time, but now too many balls have dropped...
As you may or may not have heard, there is a tanker in the Pacific Ocean that is slowly sinking... the crew has been rescued, which is really good news. Last I heard, the tanker looked like it would be...
Two tickets to Clerks 2: $16. A large bucket of popcorn and two sodas: damned if I know... $15, maybe? Listening to Kevin Smith tell [critic] Joel Siegel that he acted like a newbie, by walking out on a screening...
It's simply amazing to me that a President getting caught swearing on an unexpectedly active microphone is getting more press than the mini-war that he was talking about in the first place. And that he didn't sound like a moron...
Was at the Bellevue mall today... found myself in the Mariner's Team Store, in front of the clearance rack. Did you know that last year, when it looked like the M's were wearing black they were actually wearing a dark,...
Confession time... I watched the majority of the World Cup match today. Not that I had a huge stake in either team, mind... of course, if the US is out - at least they were able to score in Europe......
NYTimes: As the congregation of the World Overcomers Outreach Ministries Church looked on and its pastor, Apostle Alton R. Williams, presided, a brown shroud much like a burqa was pulled away to reveal a giant statue of the Lady, but...
I've been told that summer in western WA starts on July 5th. Sure, it might be June 21st on the calendar but in terms of weather, there's usually a last shot of rain that closes out June and carries into...
Gothamist: Yesterday afternoon in East Flatbush a livery driver seemingly lost control of his vehicle and swerved into an 8-year-old riding a bike. When the hack finally stopped crashed his cab into a wall a "group of dozens of bystanders...
The modern media is lost. It's been obvious to me for a while now, but it looks like other people are beginning to realize it - look at the backlash that's being unleashed on the New York Times. Of course...
I'm OOF. As in Out Of Faculty. Or even more accurately: Out Of oFfice. I'm on a mini-break while some family members are [finally!] out to visit the area. As can be expected, there's sun everywhere which is completely normal...
I registered for the PokerStars blog tourney again this year... I did pretty bad then. You see, over last summer, I read a few books and sites to "improve" my style of play. Worst. Decision. Ever. Got all up in...
New song from Jesus H Christ Band: "Connecticut's For Fucking". Just heard it on Sirius' Alt Nation... a little too accurate for my liking, or at least it just tapped a whole lotta memories at once. Lyrics after the jump,...
What's wrong with kids these days? *snort* CNN: College life is not just about drinking beer. In a rare instance, Apple Computer Inc.'s iconic iPod music player surpassed beer drinking as the most "in" thing among undergraduate college students, according...
Fuckin' A. I finally decided to get the Jeep washed today... but since I also wanted to put the top down and go to the gym and do somet other stuff, I didn't go to my usually washing place -...
It came to me while driving to work, while listening to a talk show this morning. The talk show isn't all that political, but seeing as a high ranking "officer" of a terrorist organization was capped today, they were taking...
Heard today on the news that some officer is refusing to follow orders. Those orders are that he's to be deployed to Iraq. His problem? It's "immoral". Riiiiiight. No disrespect intended, but don't you sacrifice a chunk of your personal...
A few of weeks ago I decided to lease a Mini. Er, a Mini Cooper. As in the car, not an Apple - the Mac mini was two weeks ago, not four! A bunch of people - mostly friends and...
Police investigate angry eBayer's revenge site: Police are investigating a disgruntled eBayer who took online revenge after finding a laptop he paid £375 which, he said, did not work. The buyer recovered the hard drive from the malfunctioning notebook, finding...
Popped out to see a couple of movies over the long weekend. Strange for both of us as we hadn't seen a movie in ages, much less together... what with a backlog of DVR shows, a room full of DVD...
Overhead in New York: Also, Wine Coolers and Astroglide Punk girl #1: You know what I smell whenever I pass by this store? Punk girl #2: Heh, what? Punk girl #1: Anorexia. --In front of Abercrombie, 5th Ave ha...
Yeesh. I've wanted to see X-Men 3 ever since they flashed Phoenix under the water at the end of X-Men 2. At least I used to... I don't know any more. It seems that every time I turn around I...
It occurred to me today that how asinine our culture can be. Has anyone else noticed that we're content to push coloring books at kids without thinking about why we'd do that? I have no issues with the books themselves;...
Furrygoat: ...it makes me wornder if the "Kid From Brookyln" has it right (warning: while the video may not be the most appropriate for work, it's certainly amusing). Volume is required but it's um... rather... spirited? Rated R for language,...
Nothing earth shattering to report as of late. I did go over to "The Peninsula" this past weekend with Anna, making a day trip out of a tour of Sequim, and I've been trying to keep my mind serine about...
MSNBC: “If we don’t come out, they’re going to paint us as criminals,” Aguilar said. “We’ve only come here to earn money with the sweat of our brow.” Oh, well then. That makes everything OK, does it? Not....
For fuck's sake, can the news stop going on and on [and on] about rising gas prices as if it's funny and new news to report? I don't smell gas; I smell crap....
Just spent an hour watching this show... fuckin' rules. The show uses decoys, actresses, and cops to set up perverts and busts'm. Like 21-50 year old men hitting on 13-15 year old girls. They even went so far as to...
Today I was driving to work, pretty much in a fog. So much so that I got to my building, I had to drive back home to get my ID badge: sure I could have gotten a "I forgot my...
Are comfort and lazy interchangeable? Does the difference between laziness and comfort lie with a person's intentions, when making a decision? Or is it situational? Is taking the "sure thing" rather than the "risk" a case of laziness or staying...
Bellevue Community College: We, the Board of Trustees of Bellevue Community College are deeply offended by the conduct of a math instructor at Bellevue Community College and strongly condemn this offensive behavior. This behavior is in gross violation of BCC’s...
"When athwart the horns of a dilemma, be careful where you sit." However said having choices for life decisions was a good thing needs to be poked in the bum. With a Buick....
CNN: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says Iran will "soon join the club of countries with nuclear technology." Next thing ya know, we'll find out that President Ahmadinejad wears a blue turban and a new European leader named Nicolae will rise to...
I'm confused. I mean, there's a march in downtown Seattle. There's been marches across the country. The news is reporting that these marches are for immigrant rights. Am I on an episode of Sliders? Quantum Leap? What the fuck is...
PistolWimp.com: In the fall of 1983 an Ohio man, Michael Larsen, put together an astounding run on the television game show program Press Your Luck. He did so by memorizing the sequences by which the various prize squares lit up...
I've listened to your channel for quite some time. You generally play a good mix of alternative music, both old and new. You do sometimes repeat the same songs a few times a day, but I can understand that. As...
Looking through the news, I'm simply embarrassed by what is making US headlines these days, considering what's knocking around in the world these days. And yes, who's the blame? The media? Not entirely. We let them get away with it....
MSNBC: EU: Microsoft’s Vista may break antitrust rules [...] He highlighted Vista’s integrated Internet search, digital rights management used to protect copyrights and software that would create fixed-document formats comparable to Adobe’s pdf. If I've said it once, I'll say...
I don't often spend time in FeedDemon during the weekend... most blogs take the weekend "off" and I figure that I can play catch up for the extra 10 minutes on Monday morning. And it's on that morning that I...
Huskies versus Huskies in the Sweet Sixteen. Washington versus Connecticut, more accurately. Glad I didn't go to either school, or I'd be conflicted something awful!...
Politically Correctness sucks. The other day I'm walking down a hall at work and someone is walking towards me. She sneezes. I instinctively say "Bless you." I've said that for years whenever someone sneezes. It was even a running joke...
MSNBC: Isaac Hayes has quit "South Park," where he voices Chef, saying he can no longer stomach its take on religion. Hayes, who has played the ladies' man/school cook in the animated Comedy Central satire since 1997, said in a...
The Women's College Basketball tournament begins soon - the tournament seeds were announced today. This NCAA tournament threatens to blow my mind. First off, props to my alma marta for getting into the Big Dance. Sacred Heart's previous claim to...
The other day Anna was over, puttering around in my kitchen, while I was dropping a disc in my DVD player in the living room. Just as the tray retracts into the player, the only thing I hear from the...
Word of advice... when you're hurt, angry or generally pissed off, write an entry your blog. Write it all out. Don't think about it: shoot from the hip. Just get it all out there, in the blog editor. Don't try...
Happy Big Steak Thursday! Beef. It's what's for dinner. And lunch. And breakfast. And the "oO it's 12:01 ending Ash Wednesday so we should go get a Slim Jim" snack. Yum. [New readers that have no idea what I'm talking...
Has anyone noticed all of the civil unrest in the world lately? If you have noticed it, have you also noticed that it's mostly religion related? I did. Just today. When I noticed the new round of unrest in Iraq...
I've been slacking over the Olympics this year, which is sorta odd. I'm usually an Olympics junky, especially when the host city is in a conflicting time zone. I remember staying up to all hours for the 88 Summer Olympics...
FOXSports: Outspoken Everett will shake up quiet Mariner --- He hadn't even started his first Mariners workout, and already Carl Everett was spicing up a bland Seattle spring training. I've long said that if I went to an M's game...
Yesterday I saw exactly six different robins hopping around on the grass near NE 40th on campus yet they keep talking about "snow" or something... meh. Spoioioioioing....
1,300 Cereal Boxes: the equivalent fiber of one box of colon-blow Good pop up interaction and all, but in all honesty, it's just plain neat... I think we're all programmed to feel comfortable around cereal boxes as a kid or...
FOXSports: When baseball owners approved the World Cup in August 2004 at the urging of baseball commissioner Bud Selig, the Yankees abstained. "We don't like it that well," Steinbrenner said. "If a player gets hurt, he's risking a lot. But...
What the hell? Cheney causes a hunting accident and there's suddenly "the people have a right to know" debate? How do you figure that? I mean, is there even a reason to bring that kinda statement up? Think of it...
MSNBC: “Now in the West insulting the prophet is allowed, but questioning the Holocaust is considered a crime,” President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said. “We ask, why do you insult the prophet? The response is that it is a matter of freedom,...
MSNBC.com: “Defending the prophet should continue worldwide,” Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, told the crowd. “Let (U.S. Secretary of State) Condoleezza Rice, (President) Bush and all the tyrants shut up: We are a nation that can’t forgive, be...
I can't focus. The ongoing "fury" of the referees from the Super Bowl continues... looks like it's not just Seattle-ites that are pissed about it - I've heard that the media has picked up the story and reported enough about...
The 12th man should be asking a simple question to the NFL tonight: why did we send our team to Detroit when it was obvious that no one - outside of the Pacific Northwest - wanted them there?...
Reuters.com: Pakistani Islamists from Jamiat Ulma-e-Pakistan group burn Danish, Norwegian and French flags during a rally in Lahore February 3, 2006. We're not being blamed for something, for a change... how refreshing. The fact that this is all over a...
FOXSports.com: Pittsburgh linebacker Joey Porter kept up his verbal barrage against the Seahawks, saying Thursday the Steelers will be so physical in the Super Bowl they will try to make Seattle quit playing. [...] The Seahawks aren't accustomed to Porter's...
Other the years, I've had to work a bit to keep my stock portfolio up to date, as company's symbols change. I mean, sure, IBM has traded as IBM since its inception, but not all companies are so lucky... Krispy...
MSNBC.com: More than a decade after 16-year-old Amy Fisher had a sexual relationship with a much-older car mechanic and shot his wife in the face, the one-time "Long Island Lolita" and Joey and Mary Jo Buttafuoco have agreed to appear...
Football. Can't talk about it. Been following the local team here since last year. Football is easier to watch on the west coast: games begin and bars open at 10am on Sundays. My real interest in the sport started out...
Why is it that if you don't like country music you're "normal", if you like country music you're a redneck, and if you don't like rap or hip hop you're a racist? I have no insight on it - I...
FurryGoat.com: [Andy Abramson] There are some rumors circulating that Steve Ballmer is about to step aside at Microsoft as its day to day operations head to make room for another president...Bill Clinton. Hm. While I doubt there's any truth to...
And then, there were ads. Did I sell out? Bet yer ass I did. I'm hoping they don't break up the flow of the site - and I'm still debating on adding them to the RSS feed - but the...
Reuters: Love comes at a hefty price in South Korea. There are up to 21 anniversaries, special days and celebrations a year for couples to shower each other with affection and gifts, and as a result some relationships are crushed...
I can't tell if it's a fashion trend or not, but even if it is a proper trend, I don't think it's gotten to the west coast yet. Could be an east coast only thing, actually. Either way, I still...
FurryGoat.com: Anyways, after striking out at B&N, I was able to convince my wife to walk over with me to the Apple store to check out what was new. Wow - Complete chaos. The line was almost out the door....
Some random quotes I wanted to share, from earlier in the month, since they all made me laugh... "You know that character from Drawn Together? You know - the cartoon one!" "Jeez! Your legs really are short!" "Look! A pagan...
Bronx Banter: While we were busy yesterday fretting over possible non-tenders such as Corey Patterson, Russell Branyan (both of whom were tendered after all), and Hee Seop Choi (who was re-signed by the Dodgers), Brian Cashman was cooking up a...
Chris Sells: Bush sics the NSA on us w/o due process, starts a war so he can look tough for his dad and continues to dismiss global warming as a myth. Why aren't we impeaching his ass? While earlier today,...
Happened upon this in my local Borders this past weekend... anyone recognize the label binding on that book in the middle? Let me give you a hint... it looks like this: <subliminalMessage> Buy me! </subliminalMessage> How it got there, I'll...
Went to see the movie on Friday... as is no surprise to anyone that knows me, this was a "must see". After all, I read the books as a kid. All seven of the books. And what's more is that...
Public smoking is now banned in the state of Washington, as of midnight this morning. Not only is it banned from public places but while smoking outside, you are required to be 25 feet from the entrance of any public...
Seattle Weekly: Bankruptcy of Spirit - Who would Jesus punch for an Xbox? - The holiday season has officially begun with widespread reports of near rioting at various big-box retailers, including the Wal-Mart in Renton, where the police had to...
I would swear that I just made a face that I visualized looking like this: No specific reason... just saw something in the hall that made me enter my office and go "Hey!". It's only Tuesday and it's already been...
What the bloody hell is Forbes Online thinking? I once worked for a company that partnered with Forbes, in an effort to deliver their content to mobile devices... pre-RSS days, I was required to parse through their HTML pages for...
I've never cared much for the original Xbox headset. What's the point of playing a game on a 5.1 equipped system if one entire ear is plugged with a headphone speaker? It annoyed me enough to look for an alternative...
MSNBC: N.C. carries out nation's 1,000th execution Convicted killer dies by lethal injection; death penalty reinstated in 1976 [...] "He made one mistake and now it's costing him his life," said Kenneth Smith, 35, who visited with his wife and...
FoxSports: The Red Sox have filed a lawsuit seeking a court order to keep the ball that Doug Mientkiewicz caught for the final out to clinch Boston's 2004 World Series title, The Boston Globe reported Thursday. Words still fail me,...
Personally, I think teenagers need to spend time at the mall on weekends. In my opinion, they simply aren't there long enough for the place to make a proper impression. You see, if they did spend more time at the...
I'm having a quandary. About six years ago, one post-Christmas day, I bought a fake Christmas tree so I could start decorating my house. Mission accomplished. Two years ago, while taking down my tree, I accidentally broke one of the...
BWG: Hong Kong spas never fail to come up with even kookier ways to promote weight loss. The latest effort involves setting the customer on fire. Hm... I wonder if - nah. I have nothing to add to this....
Washington Post: Tasha Henderson got tired of her 14-year-old daughter's poor grades, her chronic lateness to class and her talking back to her teachers, so she decided to teach the girl a lesson. She made Coretha stand at a busy...
I think I'm simply shell shocked by the pre-release hoopla of the Xbox 360. Games are already in the stores, as are a bunch of accessories. There are playable kiosks everywhere. I've mail ordered a wired controller from online, since...
It's Saturday night. I'm sitting on the couch with a mocha - from Victor's, no less - and updating a whole shit load of album art for my iPods. The doorbell rings......
I almost had an Episode this past Friday: I noticed that the local Ben Franklin had put up all of their Holiday decorations out. It wasn't that it was because were in the beginning of November, mind; I had forgotten...
Reuters: Coca-Cola Co., the world's largest soft drink maker, said on Friday it would phase out its Vanilla Coke, Vanilla Diet Coke and Diet Coke With Lemon beverages in the United States by end of this year. I almost never...
Ugh. I just recently noticed that it's been over two years since I finished self publishing my book. Ouch: in another seven years, I should recover what I spent on the publishing process. Ick....
Sploid: 'Up yours, Bush!' High schools under lockdown as kids ditch for nationwide anti-Bush protests. [...] School walkouts and other protests were expected in more than 70 cities and at 40 universities throughout the country, according to the New York-based...
Overheard in New York: Businessman lady #1: See, she always finds a way to make things about her! Businessman lady #2: Um, she just found out she has cancer Businessman lady #1: So? I am getting married, it should be...
Never an easy thing, this saying goodbye crap... especially when you have to do it twice in the same year. And again, even when it isn't your pet, it's still hard to do. It'd like to post a tribute to...
When RSS first hit the 'net, it didn't mean much to me; it wouldn't until the sites I checked a few times a day started to support it. Now a days, I've gotten to the point where I expect a...
I spent a good part of the day getting my ass handed to me at the PokerStars.com Inaugural Poker Tournament. Seeing as I won a couple of hands early in the tournament, I thought I'd snap the screenshot now while...
Buzzscope: If you want to buy video games, buy them anywhere but Electronics Boutique. Just so you all know, The Mad Gamer was at one point in time an employee of EB. I've seen it all, done it all, and...
This might just be the first real Rant, after having moved to the west coast. Actually, it's more than a Rant. It's a full-blown Episode. I know because I have this annoying buzzing in the back of my head that...
In a lot of ways, Washingtonians and Oregonians think they are very much alike. Similar lifestyles, tastes in politics, etc. After all the combination of Washington and Oregon make up the Pacific Northwest, as an official US region. I've been...
KOMO News via FurryGoat: Last week a woman got kicked off an airplane for wearing a T-shirt. Not just any T-shirt mind you. This one had pictures of the president, the vice president and the secretary of state on it,...
Totally fried after last night's game. First time I've had to pace in front of a baseball game in at least, um, well, a year. I don't do well with October baseball. Can't watch it in bars... don't watch it...
MSN.com: Looks like Renee Zellweger isn't sitting at home in the dark listening to Kenny Chesney tunes and wondering how it all went so horribly, horribly wrong. The Oscar winner, who filed for an annulment last month after five months...
Over the past weekend I picked up a Sirius Sportster Replay. Finally decided to jump on the satellite digital music bandwagon... not so much for on the road, since I have a five to ten minute commute to work, and...
Reuters: Actress Sharon Stone defended Kate Moss on Tuesday and implicitly criticized companies who were parting with the British supermodel after a newspaper alleged Moss had snorted cocaine. [...] "I'd like to say as for Kate Moss, I understand that...
FoxSports: Eric Bosart, of Boston, poses behind a burning New York Yankees cap outside Fenway Park in Boston, Sunday, Oct. 2, 2005. Inside the park, the Boston Red Sox were playing the Yankees. The Red Sox clinched the AL Wild...
Card Squad: Westward Ho Closing Doors [...] The Westward Ho, opened in 1963, is situated between the Stardust and Circus-Circus on famous Las Vegas Boulevard, otherwise known as ‘The Strip.’ The 700-room motel sits on a 12.3 acre property and...
For the most part a trend has to land on my head like a brick before I notice something, so I'm wondering if I've just encountered a bunch of weird coincidences or if I've noticed two new trends: - Is...
People have tried to tell me that some of the most stressful purchases in my life would be the "obvious" big ticket items. Car, house, wife, boat, etc. Not that you'd purchase your wife, of course - that would make...
Sweet Jesus, the Yankees are in first place. The Red Sox are a full game back in the Wild Card race. I think I'll take a moment to bask. Just a moment... because with the end game of this season,...
Oddjack: Celebrity Betting: Who Is the Next to Get into Zelly's Pants? Recently seperated actress Renee Zellweger is once again on the open Hollywood market and SportsInteraction is offering prop bets on the next super stud who will bag the...
WinCustomize: So to sum up: Mac zealots, knock it off. I'm sick to death of you claiming everything good comes from the Mac. I have a Mac. I paid for it, I use it, but after reading what I read...
AP News: Reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools was declared unconstitutional Wednesday by a federal judge ruling in the second attempt by an atheist to have the pledge removed from classrooms. The man lost his previous battle before...
Been a busy, busy weekend. Found myself in Connecticut on this past Thursday morning, and I swear that I couldn't remember how I got there. Now I find myself in Washington and it feels like I haven't left at all....
Honestly, what does it say about the state of today's CD prices, if I can buy Weezer's green album and their blue album - at full price, no less - and fit them both on my own CD-R? [Ya know,...
Word Soup: In flipping around the cable news channels last night, the best coverage I saw was by an NBC cameraman who didn't say a god damn thing. He simply filmed human beings in the Convention Center (also see this)....
I hope that someone dropped an anchor off Bourbon Street to prevent it from washing away... if this storm hits the coastline head on, Baton Rouge is going to be the new coastline - scary stuff down there at the...
CNN.com: A juvenile court judge shocked prosecutors by setting bail at $250,000 for a 12-year-old boy charged with firing a gun in the city. The district attorney's office had asked for $5,000 bail when the boy was arraigned Tuesday on...
Hi Sony... long time no talk. Sorry I haven't written you lately, but I've been busy running from Blinky for the last week or two... I do feel we need to have a little chat, though. While I can openly...
Forbes.com: The digital equivalent of homemade tapes are the next target of the Recording Industry Association of America. [...] The RIAA has lamented the decline in CD sales by blaming file-sharing networks and other methods of illegal downloading. Maybe if...
w00t! Opa! I finally found a [mostly] proper Greek-style pizza place in WA! Drove past Acropolis Pizza and Pasta while in Kirkland over the weekend - I keep forgetting that town is nearby... I seem to spend more time in...
I think it's about time that we remove all of the warning labels off everything and let nature take it's course. No, no, really, I mean it. Call it Natural Selection. Or maybe Natural De-Selection is more apropos. Either way,...
FoxSports: A fan plunged from the upper deck at Yankee Stadium onto the screen behind home plate during Tuesday night's game between New York and the Chicago White Sox, then was taken to a hospital for observation. [...] "I've never...
I'll admit it: I've had some dark thoughts lurking around in my head lately, and they involve education. More of the question of: to PhD or not to PhD....
Mallard Fillmore via Seattle-PI: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/fun/mallard.asp?date=20050807 Let me get this out of the way: my comments on this post are my comments. They have nothing to do with my current employer nor any of my past employers - these comments are...
FoxSports: Gary Sheffield knows who leads the New York Yankees, and it apparently isn't Derek Jeter or Alex Rodriguez. Sheffield all but appointed himself the Yankees' most valuable player in an interview with New York magazine, accusing reporters of distorting...
Reuters: A Ugandan member of parliament has pledged to reward girls for their chastity by paying their university fees if they are virgins when they leave school, a local newspaper said Wednesday. I do not - under any circumstances -...
Neopoleon: Dear women... I am so very sorry. Rory blogs what I've been saying for years... at least with regards to hitting on women, and why I need a brick dropped on my head before I'll consider "doing something"... all...
FoxSports: The NHL and the players' association reached an agreement in principle Wednesday on a six-year labor deal, ending a lockout that wiped out last season. [...] "That's going to be our next big step - winning back the fans,"...
Sky.com: London mayor Ken Livingstone has condemned attacks on the capital as "cowardly". He says a good deal more than that. I happened to catch it live this morning: without taking anything away from Guliani, Livingstone gave one of the...
And then your stomach says, "what the hell did you do to me?" Over the weekend I heard that Cold Stone Creamery opted to recall all of their cake batter ice cream... something about salmonella poisoning - after all, there...
NeoWin: In their second major ruling on Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed a federal court verdict that would have required cable companies to open up their networks to third party Internet service providers. The decision will severely limit broadband...
...love. *snort* Yeah, right. Let's try that again. Happiness Is... seeing that other townhouse in your neighborhood listed for $40,000 above what you paid for yours, just two months ago. Even with the cost of the improvements I've made on...
Scary. About a 18 or 24 months ago I had the catalytic converter on my Jeep replaced. Was neat cuz like it was *chunk* *chunk* *chunk* at every light. It included a billion year warrantee on parts and service and...
MSNBC: American fans finally fed up with F1 I somehow missed this all day today... looks like the US Grand Prix for Formula One Racing was a pooch screw this past weekend. A tire issue caused 14 of the 20...
KIROtv: A man armed with what appeared to be a grenade was shot at the new federal courthouse in Seattle during the noon hour on Monday, police said. Rumor has it that they denied him a latte at Torrefazione or...
MSNBC: Police were hoping Friday that molestation victims would step forward after a convicted child molester was arrested on charges of molesting a boy and authorities found logs suggesting that he abused thousands of children over 30 years across the...
Connecticut Post: Basking in the jurors' decision to acquit his client of all counts, Michael Jackson's lawyer said Tuesday the singer will no longer share his bed with young boys. "He's not going to do that anymore," attorney Thomas Mesereau...
Yeah, yeah, I know, over done and all, but I'm watching the live coverage and just chuckled at what's going on. MJ is late to court - due to traffic - so the reporters have free air to fill. And...
Has it been a year? Already? Yeah, actually, it has. A year ago I hopped off a plane at Sea-Tac on June 11. Took a rent-a-car over to my temporary housing in downtown Seattle, with a couple of suitcases filled...
Bill Clinton via FoxNews: [Democrats] don’t mind fighting over the issues, but uh, if still after twenty-five years of doing this with great success, when it’s done in every election it seems like we’re always surprised. We’re surprised when [Republicans]...
Chuck's Journal: WOULDN'T IT BE GREAT TO TURN ON THE TV AND HEAR ANY U.S. PRESIDENT,DEMOCRAT OR REPUBLICAN GIVE THE FOLLOWING SPEECH? [click through for the good stuff] I like this one better than the first one... so much so...
Snopes.com via Sploid: In conjunction with National Doughnut Day on 3 June 2005, participating Krispy Kreme stores throughout the U.S.will be celebrating by offering customers a free doughnut of their choice....
Chuck's Journal: Time for us to get back to our roots!!! I'm tired of the many people in this country think that they have a "right" to something.... Yeah. What he said....
In the middle of a nice long weekend, I've turned off the Yankees game - not a happy camper tonight - and have been going through some backed up DVR recordings... time for a mini-recap....
SignOnSanDiego.com: Two hurt, eight arrested in Orange County protest against Minuteman Project - A protest against the founder of the border-watching Minuteman Project turned violent when a car drove into the crowd, slightly injuring two people, and at least eight...
BBC: Lion Mutilates 42 Midgets in Cambodian Ring-Fight I shit you not. It's a real story. I... well. Wow. Is it me or does it sound like a shoot from a modern/updated Wizard of Oz went awry?...
I can't even call it a shameless plug, but there's yet even more swag available now. And how isn't this a plug? Cuz I mark up the items over cost, so I don't make anything from the sales, that's how....
Seattle PI: Tainted gasoline causes rush for repairs - Some Western Washington auto-repair shops are being flooded with complaints of cars running roughly after reports of bad gasoline hitting the market. ConocoPhillips is warning that a batch of gas from...
I have to ask the question: are all Boston fans inbred? Is there any other possible explination for them and how they act in public? We've had lively debates on this blog before about the Red Sox and the Yankees,...
Safeco is an amazing ball park. It's cozy and it's got more amenities than even I can shake a stick at. It's got Dixie's BBQ (and yes, The Man is there as well) and a whole lotta microbrews, not to...
MSNBC: Newsweek magazine, under fire for publishing a story that led to deadly protests in Afghanistan, said Monday it was retracting its report that a military probe had found evidence of desecration of the Quran by U.S. interrogators at Guantanamo...
RealID. Complex issue, on many levels. Overkill? It might be... I'm embarrassed to say that I haven't been following it as closely as I could have. One thing that I have determined is that this whole push for RealID is...
[One of things that SharpMT has helped me do is stockpile Rants - that way when I'm busy, I can dip into the pile and pull one out... over the last few months I've been keeping a pretty steady stream...
Given the recent popularity of poker - Texas Hold'em or otherwise - I have to say that the run just continues to astound me. You see, I grew up around cards - for the two of you that have actually...
MSNBC: The woman, identified only as Lori in Wednesday’s Fort Worth Star-Telegram, said she recently phoned authorities after coming home to find her daughters fighting. She told the dispatcher that her 12-year-old had kicked a hole in the door. A...
MSNBC: Two days after the end of the legislative session, state lawmakers are discovering something few were aware of: They voted to make English the official language of West Virginia. Hah!...
Just a warning that this site might go quiet for a while, what with my moving and all... I can't even begin to think what impact work will have on this week, as well. I'll be lurking around, but no...
Shocking that a retail establishment can spark a Rant, right? Hah, yeah, sure. This past weekend I popped into Best Buy to pick up a second Xbox controller and some banana plugs for some audio speaker wire. The game controller...
One down and one hundred sixty-one to go. And yes, I did a Snoopy-Happy-Dance-Of-Joy when Tino made that grab at first base... so good to see him back home again. At least it's something to distract me from the ring...
Over the past week I've spent hours trying to re-create my current blog layout using CSS, instead of the nested HTML tables that I currently use. In theory, it would make for a cleaner layout, especially if I wanted to...
I was watching 1984 last night on cable... I dunno why I can't pass that movie by - everytime I see it pop up in the program guide, I can't seem to scroll past it. While driving into work today,...
Seattle Duck: Arriving there... and meeting Gene: First off, I got lost. Lived here 8 years, worked not 3 blocks from the place, still had no clue where it was. Drove around for 20 minutes until I finally figured it...
I was sitting on a bench at Redmond Town Center last night and I saw a most disturbing thing... a Red Sox fan. Now, now, relax - there's a reason for me point it out. In fact, I think it...
MSNBC: Cardinal's plea: Don't read 'The Da Vinci Code' - Novel's success is proof of 'anti-Catholic' prejudice, he says Isn't there a half life for protesting stuff like this? I mean, The Da Vinci Code has been out for a...
I was watching The O'Reilly Factor the other day and heard that the Supreme Court is currently hearing a case that's all about the ten commandments being displayed in a government owned building... the ACLU is all over it of...
Mildly Uneasy: Getting into a 30 year mortgage to buy a townhouse in a relatively new state and job that you've had for just over nine months. [cont.]...
BWG: Tired of press speculation that her breast measurement is smaller than that of Gillian Chung Yan-tung (鍾欣桐) — her singing partner in the Cantopop duo Twins — Charlene Choi Cheuk-yin (蔡卓妍) set a great example for young women everywhere....
The Bon Marché is officially gone. The flirtation with the Bon-Macy's has been put to bed - no surprise in that - and as near as I can tell, almost all Federated Department Stores owned stores are now simply called...
Lot of Ranting lately... either the public is getting progressively dumber or I'm stressed to my maximum limit which tends to make me cranky. Given that I spent the last eight months here, and didn't have much to Rant about,...
Saw this story on the national news today, about a 14 year old kid that shot his school bus driver. The most we ever did to our bus driver is exit the bus all at once in a form of...
For the love of God... can notebook makers spend a little bit more money - like an extra $5 per model - for parts and the design of a keyboard? You know, one that a ham-hock-handed user can pound on...
America: One exposed Jackson breast during a live broadcast causes a political-infused witch hunt to make all things media-related "less offensive". Some how pictures of Michael Moore's face is still every where and I can't think of a more offensive...
So the NHL's season was cancelled a couple of weeks ago. I didn't notice, honesty. I still consider myself a Rangers fan; I started to follow hockey as the MLB had labor issues, well before the NYR won the Cup...
Never an easy thing, this saying goodbye crap... but it's all part of life. Even when it isn't your pet, it's still hard to do. It'd like to post a tribute to Sheba, my sister's cat of over eight years....
And this just in: Randy has unexpectedly taken a second line with T-Mobile and is throwing out his Verizon land line! News at 11! Or keep reading......
From spring training, via Fox Sports... Must. Crush. All things Red. And yes, I expect a very ugly, messy baseball season, especially in the New York-Boston corridor....
Gizmodo: T-Mobile’s computer forensics and security team is actively investigating to determine how Ms. Hilton’s information was obtained. That just cracked me up some how... that there's a forensics team for a mobile operator... funny shit....
<myThoughts status="protected" ammendment="1"> A few weeks ago I started using a Rio Cali in the gym because it has an FM tuner and the gym broadcasts TV audio on radio frequencies. I originally figured that I'd be using it to...
Fox: A lawsuit claims the video game "Grand Theft Auto" led a teenager to shoot two police officers and a dispatcher to death in 2003, mirroring violent acts depicted in the popular game. Yeah, right, because after playing the game...
Seeing as I signed up for MLB via MSN Premium - I wanted to be able to keep track of live Yankees games during the season - I didn't realize it until recently that I had access to the MSN...
Since part of my job is to uncover bugs in software, it should stand to reason that I would find bugs in other non-digital situations: it's hard to turn off your detection circuitry. Saw a news article and found a...
It's come early this year, but it's still here, just the same: Big Steak Thursday. Second annual, I guess you'd call it, but I've sorta always observed it. Enjoy! Beef: It's what's for dinner....
Packing has started to creep back into my life again. I'm hoping to pick up a townhouse soon, which means I'll be moving again, but not nearly as far as the last two times. It's odd: I didn't move for...
Growing up in an Italian household was never without its challenges... your extended family was larger than your homeroom in school - there's still relatives I don't recognize on the street and some I've never met. Trying to explain to...
Reuters: A Southern California man has sued MGM Mirage for preying on his gambling addiction and inducing him to borrow and lose millions of dollars at its Las Vegas casinos. See what I mean about how lawsuits are idiotic these...
Reuters: The family of a girl paralyzed in a car crash caused by a drunken football fan won $105 million in damages from the concessionaire that sold him beer, and the girl's father said on Thursday the case should have...
Cosmic irony: watching 18 people get shipped to New York City to work for Donald Trump in a... Burger King. Having applied for season two of the show - and not getting accepted [thankfully! after seeing the last episodes of...
jwz: Those of you with Tivo may have noticed an irritating trend that the networks have started, of marking hour long shows as being 61 minutes long in the schedule. That extra minute will make Tivo skip recording a show...
I've watched "Good Day, New York" for years. Over 15 years actually. It's one of the few shows that I've missed watching during the last seven months. You can imagine that I was looking forward to catching it a few...
Fox Sports: Calling the [final World Series out] ball, "my retirement fund," [first baseman, Doug] Mientkiewicz stored it in a safety deposit box. Red Sox CEO Larry Lucchino said Thursday he's going to ask Mientkiewicz to return it to the...
I keep up on Mac news from a few different Blogs, including MacMinute and The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW), and through other random sites like Neowin and C-Net. Keeping tabs on Apple news started before I got my first iPod...
My vacation is just about over, now. Sadly, I did not one bit of coding for my side projects this holiday season - sorry about that - but winter is settling in, which should help to keep me in front...
Ridiculous. Now that the Democrats have won the Governor seat after two different recounts and randomly added votes, they are strutting toward Olympia. Mind you these are the same people that had to have the hand recount because "machines make...
Chuck's Journal: I was watching the news the other night and a story from Texas where the parents sold their kids Christmas presents on e-bay (all three boys were to get the new Nintendo DS and games). I heard the...
I popped into my once-local Starbucks during my Thanksgiving trip to CT and was greeted by three different crew members that working there during the summer. Today I stopped in - if only because I hadn't had a mocha in...
Booyah! After a six month exile from the Roman Empire - located in and around both New York City and Boston (good Italian food can be found) - I spent a few hours at Carmine's in mid-town Manhattan to help...
Back to the hometown. It was snowing all along the i-95 corridor but it wasn't sticking until I headed north, deeper into Connecticut. Then I hit my hometown, which was like crossing into a snow globe. Rented an SUV to...
Reuters: Cuban Defense Minister Raul Castro warned the United States on Tuesday not to repeat its mistakes in Vietnam and Iraq by invading Cuba because its armed forces and civilian population were ready to resist. Um, why would we want...
Jalopnik:A 37-year-old man, who had just thrown two Molotov cocktails at his ex-girlfriend’s apartment building, was arrested while attempting to flee on a riding lawnmower, according to the Boston Globe. Um. Riiiiight....
You heard me. I need something to replace my iPod at work... I have a computer that is more than capable of playing music, so why not use it? Why keep lugging a portable MP3 player to and from work...
On the road for Thanksgiving: back to the hometown, the land of Dunkin' Donuts. The coffee still tastes good, but were it not for the license in my wallet, I would have thought that the last five months were just...
I usually have very, very little interest in the NBA. I find watching basketball to be boring - every 3.5 seconds, there's a game stop for some reason... I think it would be better if they removed the foul system...
Nothing quite like seeing old friends making the Sunday paper! Steve Dallas makes an appearance in Opus this week. As a long time fan of Bloom County - and I mean from day one fan - it's good to see...
Three attempts later and the site is back up and running. The first attempt was trial. The second attempt was error (had to delete the blog and start over - first I got confused and then TypePad did). The third...
MSNBC reports: J.Lo and Beyonce can take another bow. The booty-shaking stars have shaped the newest generation of mannequins, with hundreds of well-rounded plastic backsides appearing in shop windows across New York. Better late than never, that someone else gets...
One last bit on the election, mostly because of people's reaction to Kerry losing... I've seen "better get ready for a Draft," "we need a Civil War!" and "Christianity will be the new official religion". I've seen people taunting others...
On this, the eve of Election Day 2004 - a prequel to a recount, as Comedy Central puts it - I sift through the voter's guide that my state has so thoughtfully sent to me - trying to find where...
So now that the Sox are going to the World Series, I've been hearing a lot of support from casual baseball fans. It's been over 15 years since both teams have been to the World Series, but since Boston hasn't...
Know what never seems to stop amazing me? That even when my beloved Yankees screw the pooch - and make no mistake, this was a huge, Clifford sized dog that was screwed - they still some how make history... it...
The other day I happened to notice that my nifty desk clock had stopped running. Ah, no worries - there's a Movado store over at Bellevue Place Mall and that's like ten minute from work... I'll stop over there during...
The ALCS cometh... Boston versus New York, for the pennant, once more. To quote former Yankee Yogi Berra: "It's like déjà vu, all over again." The "World Series of the Northeast" begins this week - at least I don't have...
It's 7:51am on a Thursday morning. On a normal Thursday morning, I'd be at my desk, looking through some test results that ran during the overnight, but today is not a normal Thursday morning. At the moment, I'm sitting in...
I've seen two ads campaigns recently, both of them concerning proposition I-892, which is up for consideration this November. One side says "lower property taxes - vote Yes on I-892"; the other I've mostly seen on TV, and it shows...
Tonight, everyone should be an M's fan. That is, if you're a fan of the game and have no hatred for the Mariners. And if would feel that way, it would be a Yankees fan like me, after they knocked...
Have you called a Customer Service Center recently? There's been a growing trend that I've noticed before, but it took a truly annoying CSR to make me get pissed off about it......
Having been born to an Italian family, I've inherited a natural ability to observe the Sicilian notion of omerta - the code of silence that was once the best defense of Mob Families. Keeping this in mind, I'd like to...
OK, so there will probably be spoilers in the comments, so you've been warned. The only thing that I'll say is that if you've ever liked the show and liked it, catch the encore this Saturday. For the second time...
Now that I've been at Microsoft for over two months now, I thought I'd take a moment and reflex for a minute. As each day comes up, I find it to be slightly different than the prior one, which is...
Over breakfast this morning, a well inked guy was talking to the waitress at the counter, and I thought I heard him mention something about how a new tattoo on his hand would disappear soon - that it would "only...
I love to ask this question, because I've yet to find anyone that can answer it adequately, especially around this time of year. And I ask it now, just in time for this election, since this one is proving that...
As part of my move cross-country, my movers lost some items on me. Two of them weren't all that important, as they were replaceable, but the third was a lock box that had the "dreaded irreplaceable items": a 50-sheet photo...
Neil Peart was once quoted during an interview and his words stuck with me for a while: "I think that love songs are actively harmful. They invent this fantasy that people expect their own relationships to live up to and...
I'm embarrassed a bit to say it, but good. Yeah, yeah, national pride, we must win more golds than China, blah, blah, blah, but ya know what? Good. A bunch of Games ago, the ISO decided that pro-players could play,...
At last, I can stop wearing hats at work. You see, last weekend, I sunburned myself nicely. Ordinarily I burn, then it turns to tan within a couple of days and that sticks around for months. On the rare occasion,...
For any day, really, but today is Friday. President Bush is in town. The opening ceremonies of the 2004 Olympics is currently on... granted they were recorded nearly 12 hours ago, but I still like to watch them. Been a...
I really get annoyed when a word gets over used, like when people throw around the word love or hate or fury or rage. By over using it, it starts to take on a lighter version of itself. Take someone...
One of the things I find to be neat about being a registered independent is that you can't really take any blame for the two candidates you end up with in November. In years past, I've felt this was a...
Newbie dinner on Friday night. Company picnic on Saturday. Bar (and almost cat fight) Saturday night. Pillaging the Apple store on Sunday morning (in about 20 minutes). w00t!...
My contempt for the Boston Red Sox is second only to my love of the Yankees. The two feelings are intertwined, in fact, and a good deal of the pride that I feel for my pinstripes comes from their ability...
As I'm sure most people have heard already this week, the current Governor of California (go Ahr-nald!) has come under criticism for calling an obstinate group of Democrats "girly men". And of course it got some airplay. For two days...
How odd, to see a movie like The Karate Kid be mentioned with something that is typically associated with science fiction, but I think it fits. You've all see the three Karate Kid movies. I know you have. It's not...
Having been watching the news for just over a month now, I have to admit that the WA state government is a real-time experiment in modern politics. And quite often it makes for a better comedy scene than sitcoms or...
And so there was a proposal to amend the Constitution so that same-sex marriages would be considered illegal. And it failed to be passed, with the support of 48 votes (50 voted not to pass it and 2 were caught...
I don't understand why most people don't go to the movies alone. Or worse, why people still go to the movies on a first date. Movies are geared for people to be alone, yet every time I mention to someone...
Ah, behold the notion of a grinder. What's a grinder? Bad question to ask... there's more names for a submarine styled sandwich than you could ever know, but "grinder" is one that's particular to most of Connecticut. In fact, I've...
Jetta go vroom. Make Randy happy. Happy Randy is going to have to put block under gas pedal so Randy doesn't get ticket in WA. [Randy is also parked about five buildings away from where he works, due to arriving...
Think about it. The media keeps on waving their forty year old We-Caught-Nixon flag as an "excuse" to burrow their noses into every little thing that they think they should be allowed to report on. OK, fine, I'm all for...
What does a Native American tribe, government, and an Orca named Luna have in common? A lot, lately, if you've been watching the local news, and I'll give you an extra hint: it's not a casino....
I'm sitting in my temp housing, watching the sun hover over the water, and amazed that it's 8:45pm and it's still, um, rather bright out there. I'm without an active 'net connection (and I think I hosed something else while...
It took me about ten hours in total to get to my temporary housing, here in Seattle. I was supposed to be on a plane in CT at 1:40 but due to "weather related incidents" it didn't take off til...
I noticed that CNBC (via MSN) is running a poll to get "our" opinion about taking Alexander Hamilton off the $10 bill and replacing him with Ronald Reagan. I figure 90% of the readers that didn't say "Who cares?" just...
Connecticut Post: Arun Gupta, age 53 of Easton, beloved husband of Nutan and loving father of Kunal, Nisha and Akash died on Tuesday, June 8, 2004 at St. Vincent's Medical Center, Bridgeport, from injuries sustained from a bicycle accident. His...
And then there was nothing left to pack... three packers and three movers, plus eight hours, and everything I own - more or less - is now on its way to WA. One day was all it took. Now I'm...
Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Forbidden after July 1, 2004, is open flame gas and charcoal grilling on apartment or condominium decks [in Washington] made from combustible materials and lacking an overhead sprinkler. This means no grilling on the vast majority of wooden...
"Are you excited [yet]?" This is the question that has been most frequently asked of me, over the last couple of weeks. It puzzles me, a good deal, for a couple of different reasons. First and foremost is, why wouldn't...
Obviously this is something I've become acutely aware of recently, but it's something I've wondered about for a while. Whenever I mention "Washington" around here, the first question I get is "State or DC?" Of course, seeing as it's been...
CNN: Michelle Duggar is all smiles after delivering her 15th child, but she may be ready for more, her family says. Good God, man, someone ship some birth control to Arkansas!...
A few Rants ago I proclaimed this site as "Low Carb" which sort of went off its track into a blurb about why average isn't the bodily "norm" for people in the US. Basically, the whole point of it was...
I've had an electric drum set for a few years now. It's been fun, but since I started playing bass a couple of years ago, I recently realized that I haven't touched the drum set since. After going to a...
For the last 72 hours I've been on a tear, ripping through every room of my condo, weeding out the things that I have no intention of moving to Washington with me next month... and in the process, I believe...
Frasier says, "While it's tempting to play it safe, the more we're willing to risk, the more alive we are. In the end, what we regret most are the chances we never took. And I hope that explains, at least...
Almost went off the road when I heard this one driving to work this morning, but it's real: McDonald's now has Adult Happy Meals. If the standard kids meal is with a cheeseburger and the "mighty" kids meal comes with...
eBay: FORMER SCHOOL BUILDING FOR LEASE, NEW BRITAIN, CONNECTICUT At 2.5 million, it's a bit much for a single person to nick, but it's cheap for a house with a full kitchen and indoor basketball court on 2.8 acres (given...
I happened to catch a part of the Today show today. I think it was Today - Katie Couric was on, so it musta been NBC. Anyway, Katie tells us about how the majority of the HS kids that have...
MSN: Ready for the gossip equivalent of gulping down the red pill? The Chicago Sun-Times reports that Larry Wachowski, co-creator (with his brother Andy) of the "Matrix" trilogy, is preparing to undergo a sex change operation. Explains why the brothers...
I can hear you saying it now: "so does mine." I don't doubt your local cable service sucks, but I'm 100% certain that it doesn't suck as much as mine does. And what's worse is that I feel like I...
The furry one says it all. Um, the furry squirrel, not the FurryGoat, that is. He just takes what I might have mentioned before and goes a bit further, and in a higher pitched voice, but I thought it was...
Some days this particular category acts as a catch all for postings I usually just want to share with the world and the topic doesn't really fit into any of the other categories. Then there are days when the only...
Simply put, I got an email from my publisher... it went into some stuff with suggestions about how to market my book and what too look for during the upcoming month. You know, all of those special "weeks" and "months"...
Props to my Pop for prophesizing this problem. [how's that for alliteration? more like illiterate?] For the last... I dunno, twenty years? Lemme see. Been driving for... aw, fuck me, fifteen years. I'm old. Anyway, for the last eighteen years...
I've gone to a few movies over the last few months and I've really begun to wonder why. It might even be an east coast thing, but I'm really struggling with the benefits of going to a movie theatre these...
All Headline News: "Jim Cantalupo, who led a business revival as chairman and CEO of the fast-food giant McDonald's Corp., died early Monday of a heart attack, according to company officials. He was 60." Poor guy... no lie in that,...
Red Sox versus Yankees all weekend. First games of a 19 game set throught the 2004 Season. Red Sox fans are already prophesizing a season long sweep of the Yankees... Yeah. Well. Talk to me in September - that is...
Salt Lake Tribune: Much of the San Fernando Valley's multibillion-dollar adult-movie business stopped production Thursday as it banned nearly four dozen actors and actresses from working after two tested positive for the AIDS virus, industry officials said. Oops... good thing...
So Season 1 is done. Bill won, and hands down in my book. That Kwame didn't shred the slackers on his team... well, slacking is so so but lying is far worse, and I agree with Donald on that: it's...
It's been just a week since I've last played Halo. I've been busy, I guess, with all sorts of things, the Easter holiday not being the least remarkable. Does that mean that it's time for some re-runs? No, but I...
I can't figure this out (which is a common theme, lately). Not that this needs to be figured out... but it still bothers me, all the same. And I don't know if this issue is something that's inherent to a...
MSNBC: The wheel was spun, a crowd of supporters including his Mum and Dad from London went wild, the ball bobbled over the slots and landed on Red '7' and Revell walked away with $270,600. "It all happened so quickly,...
CNN: A 9-year-old girl accused of stealing a rabbit and $10 from a neighbor's home was arrested, handcuffed and questioned at a police station. Rather than pressing charges, I should send her Bing [my pet rabbit], who is nosing around...
Look, I'm all for reaming a government official if they screwed up something, and I'm still a bit off when thinking about the WTC attacks, but enough about it already. Right now, I just keep seeing the "who did this"...
Happy 100th Birthday to... Times Square? It seems so, as I heard it on the news this morning. Seems the "local town green" of New York City was established one century ago today. I guess that this does make sense,...
Men's. Women's. Priceless. Of course, now that both teams have taken their respective championship titles, I'd love to see the men's team play the women's team in a "final" game. I'd put my money on the women's team, actually, although...
CNN: Dr. Vern Cherewatenko is one of a small but growing number of physicians across the country who are dumping complicated insurance contracts in favor of simple cash payments. As one forced to pay for his own insurance through COBRA,...
Post Gazette: State police have charged a 15-year-old Latrobe girl with child pornography for taking photos of herself and posting them on the Internet. Police said the girl, whose identity they withheld, photographed herself in various states of undress and...
Poor Steve got zapped twice: first by a long-shot hope of a pricing point for the Motorola MPx and then by Howard Stern not being on the airwaves, which may or may not have been a joke, give Howie's FCC...
I wrote about this a little while ago, but it's finally hitting the news and bar promotion calendars: heard that a number of bars were planning a "pre-smoking ban" even tonight, because as of April 1, smoking is banned in...
More like Road Bewilderment, I think. See, I went to pick up my mail. This can be a dangerous thing because the parking lot acts as a host to a driving free for all. Just getting in and out of...
"What the hell was that?" said the first three Yomiuri Giants hitters, as Contreras floats a sinker ball by each one of them. He got out of the first inning using only ten pitches. "What the hell is that?" says...
Holy crap. Traffic has become a disaster and a half in western Connecticut and it's been caused by one snaggletooth accident in Bridgeport. Actually, this mess is akin to a movie script and it won't get fixed for at least...
MSN Entertainment: After her "firing," the 30-year-old [Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth] claimed former contestant Ereka Vetrini had called her the "n-word." Vetrini has vigorously denied the allegation, as have executive producers Mark Burnett and Trump. Umm... right... (keep reading)...
CNN: Tennessee County Want to Ban Gays: "The county that was the site of the Scopes 'Monkey Trial' over the teaching of evolution is asking lawmakers to amend state law so the county can charge homosexuals with crimes against nature....
Thought I'd post a follow up review to my 2003 Jetta GLI. As I previous posted, I was having a number of issues with my Jetta, and while those remain mostly unresolved, I still find the performance on this car...
Fuckin' IBM. You order a part on Sunday with two day shipping. They warn that the part might take up to 72 hours to ship, so at the very latest, I'm thinking Friday before I get my replacement WiFi card...
After watching "The Apprentice" for nine weeks, that useless and whiny bitch (Omarosa) has finally gotten fired! And she couldn't even go quietly! She had to go ahead and have a whole crying scene while waiting to go back inside...
Democracy has been brought up in press quite a lot lately, between the ongoing drama of a presidential election and the constant bombardment of updates about gay marriages, and it's actually got me thinking about how democracy is only half...
What a difference a week can make. I know the NY Rangers have been sucking ass lately, but I've somehow gotten used to that, having been a fan before and after the memorable 1994 season. But this week. Wow. They...
Being single in today's world is not an easy thing to be. In fact, it's usually a very painful cross to carry, because society tends to treat single mammals like they are some sort of social leper. Everything in our...
Somehow this became a full-fledged political hot button this election year, and I have to wonder what all the bullshit about it is. Personally, if you set all of the religious issues aside, and they should be set aside, since...
[New York Times]: Clear Channel Communications, the biggest radio broadcaster in the nation, suspended the Howard Stern show from its stations yesterday after announcing a policy to prevent the broadcasting of indecent content. I never thought I'd see this again...
Saw this proposal on Good Day New York this morning, but a local-to-the-scene NBC affiliate was nice enough to put up a link so that we could share it on the 'net. I would love to interview both of them...
Familiar with Fat Tuesday and Ash Wednesday ? If you are, you have to be familiar with Big Steak Thursday. It's a cornerstone of the whole [secular] aspect of the Catholic church....
Fuckin' OI. Have you been out driving on a weekday morning or afternoon lately? I run my errands now - as I have my days free still - and I find it to be far more hazardous that a weekend....
When someone asks me for an email address of someone that isn't in my contacts list, I often rely on the "address popup" feature of Outlook to find an address for me. It's nice enough to keep track of who...
So lately there's been a bit of a hubbub about smoking in public places here in Connecticut and New York. I know NY has had different levels of non-smoking in restaurants both in and out of the City, but I...
Or maybe A-Rod to Jeter to Giambi? Does sound pretty good doesn't it? The only thing I wonder about is how much better it will sound in during away games at Fenway. *snicker*...
In a story that seems fitting for Valentine's Day tomorrow, I have a web page to share, courtesy of MSN: Barbie and Ken Split. Even worse than the story it reports - that Barbie is now sporting a more JLo-friendly...
Rare statement warning (and I'll deny it if anyone ever quotes it back to me) but I have to say it: I have a bit of respect for marketing people that are forced to rely on slides for their livelihood....
OK, so finally people have begun to realize that carbohydrates are key to adding fat to their bodies. Every where I look these days I see "carb-blocker" pills and "Atkins Diet Friendly" menus and wonder where the hell has everyone...
Congratulations to Papa Steve and Mum Liz and Tyler Jacob! Both parents and bambino neonato are doing well, although rather tired after their delivery experience... anyone else see a software development parallel? Seeing it myself, it might be an indication...
Here I am at my local Starbucks - shocking, I know - working on some class slides, when I noticed the woman mother sitting next to me breast feeding her baby. You'd think this would draw a comment from me,...
NeoWin: Seventeen year-old Mike Rowe thought it would funny to add soft to the end of name and register the domain, Microsoft, however, is not amused. It has demanded that he give up his domain name. In November, Rowe received...
Had a pretty happy moment during tonight's visit to Starbucks - I didn't have to make a decision. I usually end up getting something different each time that I'm in there - which drives the Baristas nuts because I don't...
If ever there was a need for a study! I recently put a notebook up for sale on eBay. I bought it in March and needed some more power and less heat, so I upgraded. Now I wanted to sell...
Ever since I switched to Outlook 2003 I've benefitted from a 90% drop in Spam. At least 90%. Might be more but I'm unwilling to do the math. What I do know is that the Junk Mail filter has done...
Gas uesd to get to to Mike's Deli: $1.50. Chicken cutlet sandwich with cheese: $6.15. 20oz bottle of Diet Coke: $1.25. Waiting in line long enough to see that the New York Post has refered to Britney Spears as a...
I don't often share the email that I get from readers from my site, if only because I don't get much in my mailbox. I get a lot of comments (as you all can see) but it's seldom that there's...
Classic - from JimFormation: "That girl's ugly," said my six-year-old son as he looked up from his handheld video game and saw Ed Bradley interviewing Michael Jackson....
I can empathize with Rory on his Christmas Eve of 1999. Not from a bad Christmas Eve point of view - and I've never been to France - but in the "universe is out to get me" and "God has...
An unforeseen Christmas gift was dropped in my lap today and I'm absolutely giddy about it: I didn't come out of a sixth gear the entire length of my commute on i-95 this morning! You have to understand - a...
Hah! Seems that the security checkpoints on the Canadian side of the US-Canada border are having a bit of trouble with the onslaught of holiday fruit cakes that are being shuttled by humans and via shipping services this year. The...
Not much posting lately, but I don't know that I'm to blame for that, per se - I'm keeping another running list of topics, actually, so things might pick up soon. Anyway, my hosting company had some major upgrades that...
Yep. Blizzard warning tomorrow night into Sunday morning. The Weather channel tells me to expect 4-7 inches of snow tonight. Another 6-10 tomorrow and an additional 2-4 tomorrow night. Someone forgot to the tell this weather system that it's not...
Having just spend one hour and forty-eight minutes in a commute that was slowed due to one-eighth of an inch of snow in only certain parts of the highway, I thought that some former CT people might be amused (or...
The other day someone asked me if I was Pro-Choice or Pro-Life and my response was simple: I'm pro-condom. I mean even though the question was fair enough when in context, it reminded me of when people ask your blood...
More of a poll than a Rant and more for my US readers than not, but this is open to all (as usual) but I have the following question to ask: who had turkey on Thanksgiving Day? Did I? No,...
From Lubbock Online via WordSoup: From Kansas, the state that had many schools pull evolutionary theories from textbooks, comes a new provision in one town to make owning a gun and ammunition mandatory. City council members think the move helps...
Last week I switched my cell phone service to AT&T Wireless because AWS was offering a Microsoft SmartPhone from Motorola that no other carrier was offering. You could find it online for about $550 and CompUSA was offering it for...
Interstate 95 (i-95) has a speed limit of 55 miles per hour (mph); that means that at any given time, a motorist cannot legally drive faster than 55 mph. i-95 also happens to have a minimum speed requirement of 40...
It's an international opportunity to be sure, but I doubt that Yamaguchi-gumi have a need for a US-based gaijin that only speaks American. I mean I easily outweigh the average Japanese resident and I'm on par with the national height...
Consider this to be a ghost written Rant: today I'm writing about an Episode that my sister recently had at a Dunkin' Donuts and it sounds like I've thoroughly warperd her mind after years of subtle influence. Actually, it's something...
Saw a little segment on the news today and it proves that the work ethic is alive and well in America. It centered around five high school students that are from the east village of New York City and it's...
And so begins the holiday season of 2003. Did I see my first Christmas set of decorations in the mall? Before Halloween, so that's not it. Actually, just the passing of Halloween starts the retail shopping sale spree, but that...
I've never gotten around to writing about it here, but over the years some of my state's blue laws have given me gout. For those of you not from the east [where blue laws are most often found], a blue...
As I've mentioned before, I leased a new Jetta last month, turning in my 2001 Passat early, for a cheaper lease payment. The Jetta has been a lot of fun but it's not without its problems. On this, the day...
Heard about Ghettopoly on the news the other day and almost pissed m'self. Of course, it's causing all types of outrage. Having heard that, I opted to check it out, to see what the outcry was - after all, the...
Wow... so, like this was not the first item for sale, at Fox Sports tonight, but it was still available after the 11th inning... just another thing they screwed up during this post season: Thank you, Mariano (MVP) and Boone...
Pedro throws down Zim in a baseball fight?! Zim is a 70+ year old man that has been in baseball for over five decades. Pedro - known for beaning batters as much as Clemens - tells the bench that he'll...
I'm all for organizations that help the needy. I've donated to the September 11th fund and countless other organizations that send me a yearly envelope for donations. I give my clothing to Good Will rather than throwing it out when...
Over the weekend I was driving down a major local road and nearly had an accident. I was in my Jetta and going down a left-turn-only lane, past a bunch of cars that were stuck behind a slow moving tanker...
So I went to the last game of the regular season this past Sunday at Yankee Stadium. My father got us all some great, great seats - it was supposed to be my parents, my sister and I - in...
A few weeks ago I get a letter from VW about my leased Passat. Seems they were offering me a chance to get out of my lease nine months early, if I leased another VW. I asked my father -...
Heard this on the news this morning - after first 15 minutes of post-Isabella hysteria reporting of course - and it made me want to cheer for a number of different reasons. The story was that a high school principal...
While building and testing SharpMT, I've been forced to rebuilt my entire MT server. Net effect: bookmarks will have changed and trackbacks might be broken. Otherwise, business as usual. I also now have a test server set up at home,...
A couple of weeks ago, CompUSA had a killer sale on a DVD burner. Actually it's a DVD+R/+RW/-R/-RW/-RAM burner - Sony has been making a couple of models that has burned in all of these formats for a while now,...
When suffering a three+ hour layover, there's are worse airports to be than Chicago's Ohare. They have a Chili's and that means margaritas, so it's not that painful, but still. If I had to spend more than ten minutes in...
A long while ago, I had to vent a bit about the recent trend of retail tipping. Long story short, I pondered why fast food restaurants employees were putting out tip jars and why we would tip people simply for...
When? Such a simple question, yet in this instance there seems to be no easy answer. Time is a tricky business but I'm only asking for a single point in time to be named for a very simple event. When?...
I've added two new sections to the site, as this "thing of mine" seems to keep on growing every week. I've added a software section for both SharpMT's, the RantsTab, and a few other tools that I've "saved" from my...
