Sunday, June 19, 2005

TV
Going to see the new Batman movie at 3:15 today, its gotten nothing but good reviews so I can try and get past Batman's Kevlar/rubber suit. I never really got why they always but him in a suit like that. You can't move much in something like that. I'd rather see batman dodging bullets than be bulletproof. Batman has got to sound like a leather couch attacking you in that weird rubber suit. Anyway, suit aside I'm excited about the Scarecrow as a villian, hopefully they don't kill him off which had been the trend in the previous movies.


Comments (4) | Permalink

Friday, June 17, 2005

Hobo Cafe
This is a copy of an email I just sent to my wife:

This morning as I left to hit up the bus I realized that my wallet wasn't in my back pocket. With the bus 5 minutes from leaving it was a total Oh SHit moment since I effectively locked myself out of the apartment. I knew I could get the spare from the managers but then I would miss the bus.

Luckily I remembered that I didn't have any pockets in my shorts after basketball and stowed my wallet in my Backpack (which I was wearing). I'm not even sure why I brought my bag today since I wasn't carrying much in it.

I'm such a lucky bastard.

I was watching one of the new seasons Family Guy episodes on adult swim last night and I had a total breaking out, laughing out loud and honestly without exaggeration I was rolling on the floor. Chris was in love with his teacher and they were talking about it at the dinner table, and Meg says Eww, thats gross!

Stewie responds, "Oh, you want to see something really gross" (or soemthing to that effect) and blasts out a big fart. He blows a blood vessel in his eye though and it turns bright red. For some reason that just hit me right and even right now as I'm thinking about it I'm chuckling a little. I'm so glad they are showing the new ones on CN so I can watch them casually at night.

I've watched through all of my fansubs of Samurai Champloo as well, and its truly an impressive show. Some of the episodes are the more standard swordfighting/ villain stuff, but there are some truly bizzare episodes mixed in as wel as some really hilarious ones. I won't spoil anything, but there are episodes about tagging, baseball, weed, zombies. I can't think of an anime that is better than Champloo. Its at least as good as Bebop. I can't wait to see what this guy does next.
Comments (0) | Permalink

Wednesday, June 15, 2005

world
Somehow within the last few years I've become a basketball fan. Maybe when I started to play with my friends i started to get into it and actually understand the game a little. So I sit here watching the repeat of tonights NBA finals game, which is funny because I already know Detroit wins and still am interested. Its actually a very good finals because both teams have an unselfish and team oriented style. Its refreshing. As fun as it can be to watch some of the superstar players, the big egos are getting to a ridiculous level. Players now have a pretty big say in where they play and make way too much money.

I'm glad the Jackson trial is over, mostly because I really hate seeing it all over the news. Hopefully he was acquited rightfully. I predict about two weeks more coverage unless some new middle class white woman disappears and takes over the news.

Some 4 year old boy died on a Disneyworld attraction, which is really heartbreaking. I'm sure it was a freak thing, but I can't imagine what that would be like from the parents perspective. You get done with the ride where you were having fun, and realize your son died. Scary.
Comments (1) | Permalink

Monday, June 13, 2005

The death of myotaku
I think that MyO is dying out, and pretty much nobody is posting on their myO sites anymore (of the few people on my friends list). Everyone has their own sites up now it seems. I guess even I have my own site too, but I'm still in my infancy with actually creating a blog because I've been really to lazy to start trying to do it. Maybe I'll just have to work on it this weekend and see where I stand. Tony has offered a while ago to help me out with it, but I've got to at least give it one shot myself to see what its all about.

So I'm going to be here for another week and then am heading back to WNY for a short vacation/visit with family and friends. Should be a good time. In the meantime I'm going to try and get a lot of work done on my research (I got in at 7:20am today [HARDCORE]) so i can have something to show for myself before I take off. Usually when I get back from a vacation I get re-energized for doing work and get some good results. Hopefully the same holds true.

PS. Grad school is so not like normal school, I really miss Summers off!
Comments (4) | Permalink

Wednesday, June 8, 2005

Toxicity
If you think about this kind of stuff too much, it can be really depressing. If you think about it too little it can make things worse.

Think about the way things are going for us as we get older. Something like 1 in every 4 women will get breast cancer and similar stats for men getting prostate cancer. How many kids are growing up with athsma? How many of you or your friends wear glasses or contacts?

Air pollution, chemicals in and on foods, high doses of preservatives in everything. You can go to the most pristine untouched place in the world and there are traces of man-made chemicals there. Connections between exposure and disease/cancer are very difficult to prove, but the patterns are very easy to see. A lot of environmental messes are from places you wouldn't even think about. About half of the Superfund sites (extremely toxic land) are former dry cleaning businesses. Dry cleaning uses carcinogenic solvents to clean your clothes, and years ago they used to just dump the stuff out back. Farms are some of the biggest polluters worldwide because they have to use so much fertilizer that it contaminates the water supply. So much runoff has occured that there are miles and miles of dead ocean south of Texas where there is no life because the oxygen is gone from the water.

We're a mess, but fail to do much about it.

(I'll get back to videogames and TV soon I promise :) )
Comments (4) | Permalink

Monday, June 6, 2005

A tale of two W's
I finally got a chance to rip the new Weezer CD onto my iRiver and listen to it a bunch. I had a few days off from it since Rachael took it to work. Basically I've been listening to all of the weezer albums recently to put it into perspective.

About half the album sounds like classic weezer, and the rest is a bit of a departure. Obviously Rivers is still the singer so they are always going to sound like weezer, but this album seemed a little more experimental. Its a good album overall, with one or two lackluster songs on it. Beverly Hills I've gotten used to, and doesn't grate on my ears as much. The lyrics are a little simple (even for weezer) but it doesn't take much away from the album. I like it, maybe 7.5/10. Theres a great quote from one of the band members (Bassist) on the enhanced CD that goes..."You can't be a true weezer fan if you're happy with the direction the band is going." I think thats hilarious, for some reason weezer followers are the biggest complainers (on the internet).

E3 has brought up a lot of discussion about videogames in general, and I heard that WalMart is the biggest videogame retailer in the states. It really makes me sad to hear that. Walmart is quite possibly the worst retail store in existance. I never shop there anymore. The company has become so big and dominant primarily because most of their merchandise comes from China where things are made and sold super cheap. Not only does that drive US manufacturers under, but also hurts any other local business who can't compete with the prices. Walmart also has so much buying power that they can push around companies and demand cheaper products. Effectively Walmart then can sell shampoo, etc. cheaper than the grocery store because they bully companies into selling things to them cheaper. Its some of the most shady business practice I've heard of. Not to mention that they tend to treat their employees like shit.

In summation, your purchases have consequences that are worth thinking about. Fuck Walmart. Don't buy anything from them, especially videogames. You can live without that extra dollar you save from going there.


Comments (6) | Permalink

Wednesday, June 1, 2005

Wit and wisdom
So, This crazy dude was walking around slowly and talking to himself in town just a few minutes ago. When we pass him on the sidewalk he says:

"Don't you Nazi's get smart, we've got the H-bomb."

Followed by the clincher...

"I felt a tug on my scrotum and I don't like it!"

God bless a liberal town that will not fund mental health facilities.
Comments (2) | Permalink

Tuesday, May 31, 2005

idea theft
I know its kinda lame to just post someone else's article, but I have been hearing a lot about the Pixies from everyone lately, so I thought I would share this.

Zac Pennington http://www.portlandmercury.com/current/whoyouknow.html

I'm not gonna front like I wasn't excited. Like everyone else in the world, the overzealous traces of teenage fandom overtook my rational mind, which conveniently forgot the premier natural law maintaining the delicate balance of the space-time continuum: Reunion tours, by their very nature, ALWAYS suck. The early reports--nothing short of preposterous in their glowing positivity--only added fuel to my already delusional fire. I mean, the Pixies were back together, right? The fucking Pixies! And because it was the Pixies, it was okay to set aside rules of cosmic harmony.

Imagine my disappointment, then, when last fall I realized a trip I had planned for the East Coast directly conflicted with the Oregon appearance of the flab four--an oversight I was sure I would regret forever. Since then, however, my excitement seems to have waned with each successive leg added to the now endless cash-in--an incremental corrosion that nearly bottomed out when I heard about the plan for this Thursday and Friday's Roseland sets. Dudes are doing two sets a night for two days: A six o'clock set for "B-Sides and Rarities" and a 10 o'clock for the "Classic Set"… at $40 a set. A SET. I know this smacks of sacrilege, but dudes: Don't you think that's a little tacky? And then the cosmos begins subtly ringing in my ears once again: "Reunion tours…" it whispers quietly, "by their very nature…" (louder still, leading into the dull roar) "…ALWAYS suck!"

The thing is, there are very, very few instances in which a reunion tour is conceived with honorable intentions--and Jesus knows the members of the Pixies didn't suddenly become enlivened with a ton of brilliant new ideas for Pixies songs. And when the blood from a creative venture has been completely drained, what exactly is the point of dragging its (albeit incredibly important) corpse on stage, if not for a few more dollars? Which isn't to say that I don't plan on attending--I mean, they're still the Pixies, right? Aren't they?

I personally hate that concerts are getting so expensive. I'm starting to go to less big shows in favor of smaller acts and smaller venues. I'm very happy that I live near Portland, OR which has such a great music scene and have that choice. Ten dollars for a small bar/club show and an intimate atmosphere beats out $7 of service charges to see a show at a big venue. Like the NIN in Chicago fiasco with Tony, its getting so that you can't even see some popular acts anymore without a savings plan.
Comments (0) | Permalink

Monday, May 30, 2005

Monday
Ah, the long weekend. I finally got to see Star Wars III yesterday and it was mad good. I had heard that the acting was poor and that there was some slow parts, but I didn't really notice anything bad. The acting was fine, and the movie was nearly all action so I have no idea how you caould find it slow at all. The movie was like a big long lightsaber battle. Quite good. Gen. Grievous was my favorite character, and almost as cool as Darth Maul. The new movies are kinda bad at introducing new characters though. The Clone Wars cartoon actually had a lot of story in it, its too bad if a lot of people didn't get to see any of it. Grievous kills a bunch of Jedi and is pretty scary.

Videogame-wise I've been playing Midnight Club III. Its really fun, and has been taking upmy nights. I finally saw Donnie Darko (quite cool) and that was worthwhile. Not too scary for Rachael and pretty interesting.
Comments (2) | Permalink

Wednesday, May 25, 2005

Christians are Gay

Total volume of music on my computer: Probably about 3GB, I don't like to waste all the space on my laptop with mp3's. I usually just transfer it over to my player and delete it.

The last CD I bought: Armed Love by the International Noise Conspiracy. I bought it at their show for $15 instead of importing it.

Song playing right now: Television by Baxter

Five songs I listen to a lot, or mean a lot to me:

1. The crane takes flight by Ted Leo and the Pharmacists. Its my favorite song for this week, not just because there is whistling in it.

2. Capitalism Stole my Virginity by Intennational noise.. Great line, and a great song.

3. This is not by Blonde Redhead. Possibly the catchiest song in existance.

4. The Futile by SA, because what can old people teach us, really.

5. No Other One by Weezer. It has some personal meaning, not like the other four which are just damn good.

Five people to whom I am passing the baton:

Nobody, fuck that shit.
Comments (2) | Permalink