Happy New Year! (almost)

I have been stuck in the internet dial-up wasteland (my mom's house) for the past week, so until I can get out of here I will not post because it is painfully slow to use the internet...

Anyways, when I get back up to Manhappenin I'll start rolling again on ye ol’ blog, and I'll change a couple of things about the layout.

Until then, have a good New Years!

PIFF Week 16 All-Stars

Pos   Player       Pts Team
QB    J. Plummer   10  Steepers
RB    S. Alexander 24  &'s
WR1   A. Chatman   10  Kilters
WR2   T. Holt      8   Pillagers
WR3   C. Chambers  7   &'s
TE    T. Heap      17  Pillagers
K     M. Stover    9   &'s
DEF   Pittsburg    9   Vampirates
DB    T. McGee     20  &'s
DL1   J. Peppers   6   &'s
DL2   S. Rics      4   Pillagers
Coach Pickle       87% Picklers

Total All-Stars so far:

&'s 24
Steepers 23
Snotknockers 21
Rebels 20
Pillagers 20
Picklers 19
RedBurns 18
Vampirates 18
Kilters 17
Eldars 11

Merry Christmas!

Open up something for me. ^_^

World of Sand

World of Sand is a "game" where you play with sand, salt, water, oil, and other things. It doesn't sound that fun, but it is pretty spiff.

Christmas Eve eve

So how was your Christmas Eve eve? Mine was pretty good.

Today started off bright and early around noon. So we all (Me, Nicole, Maria, and Nicole’s mom) got ready quickly and off to eat some lunch… by 3 or so. It had been a while since any of us had ate at Jason’s Deli, so that is were we decided to eat.



It turned out to be better than I expected. It's no Panera, but it is better than Subway. (If you go there get a potato, they are huge!)

After lunch we went around town getting various things for xmas. Nothing too special at the stores but there was another good sunset.



After we got done shopping for the humans we stopped by a couple pet stores to get a present for Dakoda (Maria's dog). We had decided that a dog bed would be a good present we just didn't know which one to get. Maria to the rescue!

First up was a big red pillow:

View this clip on Vimeo
That one doesn't look too bad...

But there were many more beds to try out. Next we thought a small walled bed would be a good one for Dakoda. How did Maria Fair with it?

View this clip on Vimeo
..It looks a little small...

...So maybe she should try a bigger dog bed:

That one looks like a winner... except Dakoda might chew up the sides of it. So maybe we should go with a flat bed after all..

This one looks good, but how does it feel?

I think that means Maria doesn't like it.

By now Maria is an expert in dog beds, so when we found one the looked like a winner we still made sure Maria would give it her seal of approval.

There you have it, the dog bed that we ended up not getting. (It was too expensive, but Maria really liked it, a future birthday gift for her maybe?)

Well all that bed testing worked up quite an appetite for Maria, if only there was something to eat at the pet store... Oh look! Some bulk dog treats, Maria may be taking the dog testing a bit too far...

OK, obviously she was getting into this dog testing role too far, so I stepped in, and made sure that I got it on video:

Maria's official comment on it was: “It's not that bad." Which translates to: “Why did I just do that?"

Well after the pet store we need something to wash down the dog treats, and nothing goes better with dog food than juice. So we stopped by Smoothie King and had some smoothies (It was comparable to Intajucie, if you have ever been there...)

(Nicole approves)

After the juice we grabbed some food at Target to fix (chicken, asparagus and couscous). After dinner we sat around and played Katamari. (Nicole’s mom bought it from BestBuy tonight for something fun to do.)

Now everyone is in bed and I am playing on the computer and enjoying the Christmas season.



Welp, I'm off to bed too.
Have a good Christmas Eve.

Rockin Kansas Sunset

On the way to Wichita:

Holiday How-To: Chris Style

If you haven’t seen it yet go check out Chris' How-To video about fixing a nativity scene. It's pretty good.

PS2ing

Nicole and I are kicking off our holidays down at Nicole's mom's house. Currently Nic is playing PS2, and Nicole, Maria and Nicole's mom are out at Target getting some new xmas lights for the tree.
Later we will be going to a movie, possibly Narnia. Rock on.

Sonic Thugs

Last spring there was talk of starting up a Treeball league. It never happened mainly because I never really set my mind to it, but I did get a chance to sketch a couple of logos on some paper. Today I was looking through some folders and found the old logos I sketched, so I went ahead and drew up one them on Illustrator.
This is what I wanted Michelle's team to be; the Sonic Thugs. I thought it was a fitting name, but she didn't like it so much, eh.
Anyways I think it turned out pretty good. Illustrator makes some pretty cool things once you learn how to use it.
Hummm... now what can I do..?

1st place is for losers!

The Pirate Islands trivia team once again showed their mastery of imposing their will over other teams. Instead of winning the trivia finals like amateurs, and thus winning a trip for four to Vegas, they opted to show their true dominance by not only knowing when to answer questions right but to also miss questions so that they could finish second for an overly impressive sixth straight time. This clearly shows that the Pirate Islands team is easily in control of the game and could win at anytime, but chooses to show their power through getting second as many times as possible.

Fear us. :)

(Also who would pass up DVDs from the dollar bin from Walsmart for a trip to Vegas? Not us.)

Good news everybody!

smh.com.au
(site)

Nearly four years after it was cancelled, the popularity of Futurama on DVD could breathe life back into the animated television series.

"Three months ago, I would have said we were going to start tomorrow," says writer David X. Cohen, who collaborated with Groening on Futurama. "And one month ago I would also have said we were going to start tomorrow. So ..." He pauses. "My current estimate is that we're starting tomorrow."

So look for new Futuramas tomorrow...

Green and Copper

That’s the colors for this Christmas, according to De'Awesomemo research lab. And you know Nicole and I, we are the trendy types, so we just *had* to have a green and copper tree.

PIFF Playoffs

It's playoff time in the land of the Pirate Islands. The Championship bracket looks like a tough one:



The defending champions Rebels come in with the #1 seed and they are matched up against the late surging Steepers. The ever-strong &'s are matched up against the once powerhouse Vampirates, but due to injuries, have been slipping in the standings.

The Consolation bracket pits the Pillagers, who just missed the Championship playoffs against the Kilters, who barley eked their way into the Consolation playoffs. The dominating Picklers are matched up against the losers of 6 straight, Snotknockers.



The Red Burns and Eldars packed up their equipment for the year and are enjoying the holidays.

PIFF Week 15 All-Stars

Pos   Player       Pts Team
QB    M. Hasselbeck17  Kilters
RB    T. Barber    26  Red Burns
WR1   S. Smith     13  Snotknockers
WR2   C. Johnson   6   &'s
WR3   T. Houshman..5   Steepers
TE    C. Cooley    11  Vampirates
K     N. Kaeding   12  Vampirates
DEF   Chicago      5   Rebels
DB    T. McGee     4   &'s
DL1   J. Taylor    6   Red Burns
DL2   W. McGinest  5   Eldars
Coach Pickle       75% Picklers

Total All-Stars so far:

Steepers 22
Snotknockers 21
Rebels 20
&'s 19
Picklers 18
RedBurns 18
Pillagers 17
Vampirates 17
Kilters 16
Eldars 11

Bikini Calculus

This is how it happened (I don't know if this is true, I just made it up, but it has to be):
Two guys are sitting in a Calc lecture class.

"Man this stuff sucks."
"Yeah."
"I wish our prof. was hot, and then i would pay attention."
"Yeah."
"You know what? That’s a good idea, have some hot chicks teach calc, everybody would watch it!"
"Yeah."
"Ok, let's do it. We'll call it: Bikini Calculus. You in?"
"Yeah."

And now behold what they did:


It's pretty funny, and actually not that bad as far as the calc goes. (It takes a minute to actually get into the calc.)

They have the entire DVD up for torrent on their web-site, so if you don't want to shell out $13 for the DVD you could just d/l it... although these guys prob. deserve the money.

Unwed Numbers

American Scientist Online (article)

Here is an article about Sudoku and the math and logic that goes with it.

This sequence of rules suggests a simple scheme for rating the difficulty of puzzles. Unfortunately, however, not all Sudoku can be solved by these rules alone; some of the puzzles seem to demand analytic methods that don't have a clear place in the hierarchy. A few of these tactics have even acquired names, such as "swordfish" and "x-wing." The subtlest of them are nonlocal rules that bring together information from across a wide swath of the matrix.

It turns out that the math behind Sudoku is pretty complex. If you don't know what Sudoku is, you should check out this website, I'll see you back here in two to three hours...

Grow Ornament

Grow Ornament by:Eyemaze (game)

Eyemaze has made a special version of Grow for Xmas. Enjoy.

The People's Cube

Groupthink :: The People's Cube: Guaranteed Results (site)



Socialists rejoice! They have made a game just for you!
It's a rubric’s cube but all the sides are red. Just listen to these comments:

"Nobody is too smart or too slow - Everybody is equal!"
"Preferred game of progressive elites."
"Hours of politically correct entertainment!"

If you have a socialist in your life you should get them this cube for “the winter holiday”.

Digging in the snow.

Since today was such a nice day out (it snowed all day) Nicole and I went on a walk. We didn't get too far before we saw other people playing in the snow too:



So it looks like another water pipe broke in our area, again. So we went on along our walk, and when we got back we were greeted with brown water from the faucets, thus causing a rare hot tea shortage in the apartment. (A sad event indeed.)
Stupid water. But to make up for it Nicole is gonna make chicken quesadillas for dinner.

So it all works out fine in the end. :)

Need to print up some play money?

Here you go:



(Don't actually print them, they are the new Swiss bank notes. They like color over there.)

For Nicole:

It made me think of you. ^_^

Point: Campus Crusade for Christ.

Among all the groups and clubs at K-State is an organization called Campus Crusade for Christ. I believe they are one of the bigger Christian organizations on campus. Usually groups on campus do some sort of stupid thing to bring attention to themselves. That way they can better the world in their own self-contrived way. So what has Campus Crusade done during finals week to get attention?



They gave out hot chocolate, candy, blue books, pencils, and hugs, for free, to anyone passing by them in the quad.

What?!? A campus organization doing something to help others instead of just bringing attention to themselves? I hope other organizations on campus realize this is a much better way to get attention than picketing, or making billboards, or whatever other non-constructive things they do.

Campus Crusade, you guys rock.

The Interactive Way To Go

The Interactive Way To Go (site)

I just spent the first hour of the morning learning how to play Go. It is the most elegant game I have seen. The game mechanics are very simple; place a stone, remove the stones that are surrounded. But the simpleness in the game mechanics allows for a very complex and thought provoking game.
Game designers should take a lesson from games such as this. The complexity in the game should come from the game play, not from the game rules. It seems that the game designers now days are bent on thinking up a good set of game rules that produce a fun game. But what happens is that the 'fun' rules that they make get in the way of actually making a fun game.
Well, let me take that back, the game is fun once or twice, but while making the complex rules they limit the depth of the game, it becomes too complex to be elegant, and games aren't really fun unless the are elegant.
For example: "The Big Idea" has a very simple game mechanic. You bid on products, and roll a die to see if it is successful. There aren’t different markets to worry about, or investment schemes, or capital. The fun does not come from the game rules, but from the game. It is so simple that it is easy for anyone to play, and anyone to enjoy.
Another example: The collectable card game "Pirates" has all the potential to be a really fun game. You buy relatively cheap ships with hope that you could command a fleet of 20 or 30. But it is not so. Why? Because the makes of Pirates felt that they should force the fun on the players by making every ship be an exception to some rule. Thus, the simple base rules of the game give way to a pile of rules spaghetti. The result is that the game is almost unplayable with more than 6 ships per side, and even at that it is not that much fun. The designers thought "it would be fun if this ship could do this, or this ship could do this", and made the ships fun, but made that actual game un-fun. If you are a game designer don't do this!
Just remember, simpler is better.

Oh, and since I have all the game designers’ ears at the moment (yeah right... ^_^), let me say this: Stop making trivia games! I don't care if “in this game you get to move two squares with a correct answer instead of the normal boring one”. If you are sitting down and trying to think of a game to make, and your first idea is something like: "Oh, I know! How about I make a trivia game!" Please just go on a nice walk, and go get a job where you don't need to think. You seriously do not need to pollute the board game market with another trivia game. No matter how the game is actually played.

Huh, I just spent the second hour of my morning talking about Go. For my third I should actually be going. (Amber joke!)

Bobby Trivia’s

Last night it was a Tuesday, and Tuesdays are decreed Trivia Night in the land of Manhappenin. I know, I know, you have heard it all before. But last night’s Trivia contained a three-a-ma-jig of awesomeness.

Aside: I would have used the word trifecta, as it is a cool word, but it has gone mainstream now and used by the likes of ESPN and such. So I had to invent a new three-y kind of word. That word was three-a-ma-jig, and you were around to see its birth, you should feel special.

Anyways. Awesomeness number one. Justin apparently works at Bobby T’s, and by apparent I mean he does, and he is visible. He stopped by in-between washing dishes to see what was going on. It was good to talk to him again, as it had been a good long while since I had talked to him before that. I need to get out and do somethings with him... he’s a cool guy.

Awesomeness number two. We won the first round of trivia. The trivia dude asked if we wanted shots or anything for winning the round. We declined since most of us are teetotalers, but Jenette had a great thought and asked him for a desert instead:



So they brought us out a brownie sundae. That was way better than a round of shots, let me tell you.

Awesomeness number three. We ended up claming second place again (that’s the fourth week in a row for the Pirate Islands trivia team). Normally they give out a Coors Light T-shirt to each person on the team for second place. But luckily they were out of them (and do we really need a weeks worth of Coors Light T-shirts?). So instead our team won a gift certificate for 16 tacos. Rock on.



Yes, last night was truly a three-a-ma-jig of awesomeness.

The 10 Most Puzzling Ancient Artifacts

About.com (article, GatB approved)

Not getting enough AM Coast to Coast lately? Get you mystery fix for the day here. Here is an example of one of the puzzling artifacts:

Over the last few decades, miners in South Africa have been digging up mysterious metal spheres. Origin unknown, these spheres measure approximately an inch or so in diameter, and some are etched with three parallel grooves running around the equator. Two types of spheres have been found: one is composed of a solid bluish metal with flecks of white; the other is hollowed out and filled with a spongy white substance. The kicker is that the rock in which they where found is Precambrian - and dated to 2.8 billion years old! Who made them and for what purpose is unknown.

There is some pretty crazy stuff, a couple of them sounds like they are hoaxes, but a couple are really weird. Check it out.

The Chronicles of Narnia, Review

Last night Chris, Jenette, and I went to go see the Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe. I had hoped that it would be a good movie (hence me actually going to see it) but it turns out that it is probably most enjoyable movie that I have seen at a movie theatre all year.

Now, I have never read the book, so that my un-sway my opinion of the movie somewhat, but I think that most people have not read the book, or at least to the extent that people had read Lord of the Rings, or Harry Potter, so I don’t think that my un-knowledge of the book should be that big of a deal for the review.

Anyways, on to the movie. (I will try to be general as to not give away anything in the movie.) Overall the story is great, it is about two brothers and two sisters making their way through Narnia to find Aslan. The sibling interactions are portrayed accurately, but without rubbing normal birth order rules in your face. The general story line is about betrayal and redemption, which is not really that unique for a movie. But what does make the movie unique is the strong Christian symbolism in the movie. By strong symbolism I mean the story is a parallel to Christianity, not that everything is blatantly a Christian reference (Besides Son of Adam, Daughter of Eve...) It would be interesting to see what a non-Christian would pick up from the movie as being religious ideas, and what they would think is just unique to the movie. (If you are a non-Christian, I’ll help you some, there is no talk of a White Witch in Christianity, that is unique to Narnia. ^_^) Even though there is some sword play and a battle scene there is no blood in the movie, but the fight scenes are still fulfilling. And yes, the ending is a happy one.

The only thing that annoyed me some was the use of CG. There were some times that things were computer rendered when I didn’t think that they had to be. But other than that I had no complaints about the movie.

The weirdest thing was watching a movie that I have never seen before and but still know what is going to happen before it does, due to the parallels to Christianity. It’s not really a downfall of the movie, because it is still fun to see it play out.
As I said at the beginning, I think that this movie is pretty good and is probably the best movie of the year. It is defiantly worth going to see. I’ll give it 9.5 out of 10.

Trailer, More info.

PIFF All-Stars Week 14

Pos   Player       Pts Team
QB    D. Bledsoe   16  Red Burns
RB    L. Johnson   27  Picklers
WR1   C. Chambers  10  &'s
WR2   M. Harrison  10  Snotknockers
WR3   K. Robinson  9   Kilters
TE    A. Gates     7   Kilters
K     J. Feely     12  Kilters
DEF   Seattle      6   Steepers
DB    T. McGee     4   &'s
DL1   J. Abraham   7   Vampirates
DL2   Ja. Allen    5   Pillagers
Coach Shannon      93% Steepers

Total All-Stars so far:

Steepers 21
Snotknockers 20
Rebels 19
Pillagers 17
Picklers 17
&'s 17
RedBurns 16
Vampirates 15
Kilters 15
Eldars 10

Panda Pang

Panda Pang (game)

Panda Pang pits one panda against a whole lot of green things (eggs?). It is one of the funest games to play.

If you need to get work done, don't even try to play the game. It’ll eat an hour of your day very quickly...

Shut Down Wikipedia!

WikipediaClassAction.org (site)

Our intention and the purpose of this website is multi-fold. Specifically, we seek to achieve the following:

* Expose the inherent faults and flaws of the Wikipedia online encyclopedia.
* Force Wikimedia Foundation Inc., through legal action, to change its current practices that permit anyone to post content to their website, without formal attribution and without recourse back to Wikimedia Foundation and or the author of the content.
* Recover substantial monetary damages, on behalf of those who have suffered as a direct result of Wikimedia's flawed business model.
* Establish a precedent that will ensure similar websites are held responsible for their content.

Next up: YourBlogClassAction.org

Crapfaces.

The Legend of Zelda SNES

Google Video (video)

This video is an ad (?) from Japan about the original Zelda, where everyone is dressed up like characters or monsters from the game. Then they rap... and dance. It's about as absurd as you can get.

A must see. ^_^

Now in 13" Awesomeness

Our computer monitor died this morning, so right now we are borrowing a small monitor from Chris and Jenette. It is kinda hard to use a computer with a small monitor.

Yesterday Newgen came down and we had a Warhammer battle in the snow. I'll post a pic or two when I get the pics loaded up.

p.s. T-minus two weeks 'til Christmas.

Deep Thoughts

erikandanna.com (site)

If aliens from outer space ever come and we show them our civilization and they make fun of it, we should say we were just kidding, that this isn't really our civilization, but a gag we hoped they would like. Then we tell them to come back in twenty years to see our REAL civilization. After that, we start a crash program of coming up with an impressive new civilization. Either that, or just shoot down the aliens as they're waving good-bye.

Good stuff. If you need a 15 minute diversion click on the link above. If you don't... you still should click on the link above.

Last day of classes.

Not that it matters to me though, I have been done with my classes for a week or so, and I got all my projects done yesterday. Unfortunately, I still have to go to school so that I can get the final I am giving off to the copy center.

So, I shall eat some lunch and then it'll be off with me to school.

Shocked Shockey

shazfazam: (gif)

I don't know how I didn't see this until now, but go check out the link for the gif. It is Jeremy Shockey celebrating about winning the game against the Seahawks, well, until the game winning field goal is missed.
Great stuff.

Car crash, heavy traffic turn out Christmas light show

daytondailynews.com (article)

Sheriff's deputies asked the owner who lit up his house with 25,000 Christmas lights synched to music to turn off the display after a traffic accident Tuesday night.
Deerfield Twp. resident Carson Williams agreed to shut down his holiday decorations indefinitely.
Williams told a Cincinnati television station that sheriff's deputies could not reach the traffic accident because of the traffic lined up in his neighborhood.

Boo.

Here is a link to the show.

Google: Ten Golden Rules

Newsweek (article)

Why is Google so strong? How about; the company is a good one to work for.

Cater to their every need. As Drucker says, the goal is to "strip away everything that gets in their way." We provide a standard package of fringe benefits, but on top of that are first-class dining facilities, gyms, laundry rooms, massage rooms, haircuts, carwashes, dry cleaning, commuting buses—just about anything a hardworking engineer might want. Let's face it: programmers want to program, they don't want to do their laundry. So we make it easy for them to do both.

Encourage creativity. Google engineers can spend up to 20 percent of their time on a project of their choice. There is, of course, an approval process and some oversight, but basically we want to allow creative people to be creative. One of our not-so-secret weapons is our ideas mailing list: a companywide suggestion box where people can post ideas ranging from parking procedures to the next killer app. The software allows for everyone to comment on and rate ideas, permitting the best ideas to percolate to the top.

Don't be evil. Much has been written about Google's slogan, but we really try to live by it, particularly in the ranks of management. As in every organization, people are passionate about their views. But nobody throws chairs at Google, unlike management practices used at some other well-known technology companies. We foster to create an atmosphere of tolerance and respect, not a company full of yes men.

There are more of ‘em too (seven more to be specific).
My point is that if you make a company that people would want to work for you can get much better employees for the same hiring price, and this makes your company work better.
Above he says: "Let's face it: programmers want to program, they don't want to do their laundry." I don't think this is always the case. I think people with a bad worth ethic would rather do their laundry than *any* job before them. But Google never sees these people, they only see those that would rather program. Why? Because only the best employees at the current hiring spot get into Google because it is such a desirable place to work (probably because you can do your laundry at work). So the only people that work at Google are those that would rather program then do their laundry.

And the good karma abounds.

Snow

Today isn't as cold as yesterday. It is currently 12F out, which is warmer than yesterday by a few degrees, and it is snowing. Whenever it is snowing it doesn't seem as cold outside, probably because then I don't care as much because then at least the cold is being used for something (the worst days are when it is sunny and very cold out, i hate those).

Anyways, I think I'll blame the cold on global warming.

(The pic is from inside Panera where I ate lunch at with Chris and Jenette.)

Spoiled?

After reading this article about Honor Code violations at K-State, I had a couple of things to mention about it. So I scrolled to the bottom of the page to post a comment. Duh, it’s the Collegian, they don’t have comments. That got me thinking, am I delusional for thinking that a comment that I would make would make any difference on something such as a newspaper? Or, since the web is moving in the direction of reader make content, does the Collegian need to get with the times and allow comments?

I personally found it frustrating that there was no comment button, until I remembered that it was not a blog. But then again I’m sure half the people that read any article in the Collegian would have a comment to leave... but would that be a bad thing if everyone did leave a comment?

Gyped! (Gypped?)

How many moons does Jupiter have? 63

How many moons does Saturn have? 31

The trivia question: What planet has 37 moons? We said Saturn; they said the right answer was Jupiter.
I think we were closer...

In related news we got second in trivia at Bobby T's for the third week in a row.

(Side note: Re: gypped or gyped)

The coolest thing ever!

I searched for "the coolest thing ever" on Technorati because i did not know what the 'coolest thing ever' was. This is what i discovered:

Thayir sadam (without which a meal would never be complete)

Feet (all the bloomin’ time!)

The Hudson Bar (it really gets bumpin' on a Saturday night)

Seahawks (and you're right)

Google toolbar spell check (well, minus dippin dots)

This Video (If I could ever be this cool)

iPod (YES it does also play video)

If i ruled every day at twelve o clock an oldies song would start blaring then everyone performs a secronized dance (a HAPPY one obviously)

A rubber chicken (the box says turkey, but we know it's not)

Real working 3d laser projected displays (similar to holographic)

Sms-ing (a major part of so many cultures)


There you have it, the coolest things ever. (The quotes in the brackets is from the post, not from me.)
Hurray for procrastination!

Musician: DRM screws my fans, so it screws me

Boingboing.net

Dean Kulash, the lead singer for the band OK Go, has a great editorial in the NYTimes today, describing why DRM systems are bad for artists:
Tech-savvy fans won't go to the trouble of buying a strings-attached record when they can get a better version free. Less Net-knowledgeable fans (those who don't know the simple tricks to get around the copy-protection software or don't use peer-to-peer networks) are punished by discs that often won't load onto their MP3 players (the copy-protection programs are incompatible with Apple's iPods, for example) and sometimes won't even play in their computers.
Conscientious fans, who buy music legally because it's the right thing to do, just get insulted. They've made the choice not to steal their music, and the labels thank them by giving them an inferior product hampered by software that's at best a nuisance, and at worst a security threat.
As for musicians, we are left to wonder how many more people could be listening to our music if it weren't such a hassle, and how many more iPods might have our albums on them if our labels hadn't sabotaged our releases with cumbersome software.

Yeah, that sums it up. I'm glad to see that at least the musicians see that *they* are the ones who get hurt out of this p2p witch-hunt. The record companies are in it only for themselves, and if the bands think they are being looked out for, they need to study up on what is going on.

Should the bands call for the end of record labels?

NAFTA = No good.

I am beginning to think that this NAFTA deal is crap. In the summer all the hot air gets to come up here from Mexico for free, and now in the winter, all the cold air migrates down here… We should at least put a tax on the cold air when ever it gets below 20(F) outside or when it gets above 100(F). That’ll make Canada think twice before they send it down here (…by using really large fans(???)).

P.s. It was 5 degrees this morning. That is not fun to walk around in. If it wasn’t for NAFTA we could have funded our schools for the year from the last couple of days of cold. Curse you NAFTA! Curse you Canada! Curse you Radina’s for tempting me with Hot Chai!

PIFF Week 13 All-Stars

Pos   Player       Pts Team
QB    C. Palmer    15  Rebels
RB    L. Johnson   21  Picklers
WR1   K. Robinson  9   Kilters
WR2   T. Houshman..8   Steepers
WR3   H. Ward      7   Vampirates
TE    C. Cooley    4   Vampirates
K     N. Kaeding   6   Vampirates
DEF   Seattle      28  Steepers
DB    T. McGee     3   &'s
DL1   D. Freeney   5   Rebels
DL2   M. Strahan   4   Vampirates
Coach Aaron        93% Rebels

Total All-Stars so far:
Snotknockers 19
Steepers 19
Rebels 19
Pillagers 16
Picklers 16
RedBurns 15
&'s 15
Vampirates 14
Kilters 12
Eldars 10

she said yes

Important Newgen update on his blog.

Funniest Commercials of the Year

tbs.com (site)

You can vote for the funniest commercials of the year here. They are all pretty good, but surprisingly I have only seen about half of them. tbs is probably making a killing on getting a lot of people to watch ads on their site. But hey, it's entertainment. (I bet its funner than the paper/ work you should be doing... ^_^)

Since i am throwing out links, Siskel & Ebert uncensored gave me a chuckle. p.s. you prob. shouldn't watch this at work, or whatever; they cuss up a pretty good storm about the Protestants. (Can someone give me a group of people to get mad at? Everyone else has one...)

Old mp3s from Oct/Nov

In my attempt to keep you, the reader, up to date with my life, I will now give you the songs that were on my mp3 player for October and November:

My Stupid Mouth                 John Mayer
Traveling                       Utada Hikaru
Siyonara Color                  Super Butter Dog
"Stars are on our Side"         Rookie of the Year
Silent Life                     .hack SIGN soundtrack
Clarity                         John Mayer
The Walrus                      Lunasa
Save Tonight                    Eagle Eye Cherry
Taking It all Back              Count the Stars
Harujion                        Bump of Chicken
The Song from Hell              Anything But Joey
Things I'll Never Say           Avril lavigne
3rd Planet                      Modest Mouse
Autumn Air                      Various Artists
Light up My Room                Barenaked Ladies
Singing in My Sleep             Semisonic


Song most listened to:                    My Stupid Mouth
Song most skipped:                        Save Tonight
Song i like more than when i put it on:   The Song From Hell
Song i like the least since putting it on:3rd Planet
Best song of the bunch:                   "Stars are on our Side"

Christmas song time.

The home stretch

Well I am about ready to start on the last week of classes here, and then after than is finals. Whee.

Actually, I can't complain, all my own classes have stopped meeting, and I only have one project left to do, which must be turned in before finals week. Other than that I have two things to grade, two classes to teach, a final to make and give, and my semester is over.

And you thought I worked hard. :)

Favre.

How is the season going for the Packers?



About that good.

I think that this may be the last year for him. Or at least the last year for him at the Packers...

Script and such

Tonight’s nonsleeping activity was to work on the MAD script. I reworked the Queen and the Dad's lines to make them work better. I also played with Illustrator some.

Must sleep...

Logos

How important is red to Coke?
If the colors on the logo are changed it is hard to associate it with Coke, at least for me it is...




Much better.


Also, if you are into vector-based art the best brands of the world is a website that has over 100,000 company logos, all in vector form that you can download.
resplendent.

PIFF Helmets

What is the night for again?

Xmas list

I have started a Christmas list on Amazon you can find it here.

There are a lot of other things that i want, but i either can't find them on Amazon, or i can't remember them.

Happy shopping. ^_^

Update: It should take you to my wishlist now, even if you are logged in to Amazon as someone else. If not give me a yell.

Deer-Automobile Accidents

KTVE Region 10 (PSA)

Just so you know:

If a deer comes into the road State Police say you should not swerve. They say they've seen it all too many times the car swerves and hits an immovable object. Police recommend hitting the animal, however if that animal is a horse or cow they recommend you get out of the way.

So the scoring goes: 100pts for hitting a deer, 100pts for missing a cow, and 200pts for missing a horse. Keep me posted on your scores.

Worst quiz answers ever!

The Sun Online (article/list)

Oh, some of them are pretty funny. A couple that are good are:

Paul Wappat: How long did the Six Day War between Egypt and Israel last?
Contestant (after long pause): Fourteen days.

Wood: What "K" could be described as the Islamic Bible?
Contestant: Er...
Wood: It's got two syllables... Kor...
Contestant: Blimey?
Wood: Ha ha ha ha no. The past participle of run...
Contestant: (Silence)
Wood: OK, try it another way. Today I run, yesterday I...
Contestant: Walked?

If you need some funny in your life check out the link.


Update: I forgot to post one on my favorites (it is from the Weakest Link):

Robinson: What insect is commonly found hovering above lakes?
Contestant: Crocodiles.
Robinson: Wh...?
Contestant (interrupting): Pass!

Christmas Lights Set to Music

Amber showed me a pretty rocking video of a house decorated with Christmas lights that flash in tune with a Trans-Siberian Orchestra song. It is way cooler than it sounds. Check it out:

Is that not cool?

LearnOutLoud.com

LearnOutLoud.com (site)

Like to learn things? Then this is the site for you. It has hundreds of video and audio clips of things that you can learn about. I just got done watching part of a lecture that the CEO of Amazon gave about his company. Pretty interesting stuff.

PIFF Week 12 All-Stars

Pos   Player       Pts Team
QB    C. Palmer    18  Rebels
RB    L. Tomlinson 30  Rebels
WR1   T. Holt      7   Pillagers
WR2   C. Johnson   5   &'s
WR3   J. Galloway  4   Snotknockers
TE    J. Shockey   9   Snotknockers
K     M. Vanderjagt12  Steepers
DEF   Carolina     -2  Red Burns
DB    C. Bailey    7   Eldars
DL1   Ja. Taylor   8   Red Burns
DL2   K. Vanden    5   Steepers
Coach Shannon      98% Steepers

Total All-Stars so far:
Snotknockers 19
Steepers 17
Pillagers 16
Rebels 16
Picklers 15
RedBurns 15
&s 14
Kilters 11
Vampirates 10
Eldars 10

THE Jones Soda 2005 Holiday Pack Review

*Update - I have a new review over the 2006 Jones Soda Holiday pack, check it out*

So about two weeks ago at Target I had a grand idea: "Hey let's get that Jones Soda Holiday Pack and have it for Thanksgiving." Well Thanksgiving came, and we tried the sodas.
This is what we think about them. (Warning this post is video heavy, so if your computer is stuck in the 90's, i.e. you have dial-up, you will not enjoy this post as much as the rest of us in the 21st century.)

The fateful day had arrived, Thanksgiving was here and Jones Soda wanted to crash the party. They look innocent enough in the packaging don't they?



Well for some reason we decided to try the worst ones first and work our way towards the good ones... So first up was the Brussels Sprout with Prosciutto soda. This Nicole trying it:


View this clip on Vimeo

Now if you listen closely to the end of the clip you can actually hear me gagging on the soda (we all tried the soda at the same time).

So what did everyone else think of the Brussels Sprout with Prosciutto soda? (p.s. look at Maria's face)


View this clip on Vimeo

Well with the worst (?) behind us we ventured onto the Turkey and Gravy soda. Nicole's mom had the honors of being recorded for this one.


View this clip on Vimeo

I think that "Oh my God" means that she likes it.

By this time I gave up both trying to video and trying the sodas at the same time, mainly because my gag reflex was making it very difficult to hold the camera steady.
Pressing on we tried the Wild Herb Stuffing soda next. So Maria is it good?


View this clip on Vimeo

Is that a no?

Ok, so the three bad ones were done. That's good. Next up we tried the Pumpkin Pie soda.


View this clip on Vimeo

The bad thing is, I think "That's like really bad Jell-O" is a complement for it, because I think, so far all the other reviews have been "puke". Nicole, any additional thoughts?


View this clip on Vimeo

So is that half a star out of four?

Well finally we came to the one soda that couldn't miss, Cranberry soda. Unfortunately by this time even the smell of carbonation was associated with wanting to hurl, but we forged ahead.


View this clip on Vimeo

Do we have a winner? The comment of "That one is not *that* bad." I think gives it the title of the "best" soda from the pack. Congratulations Cranberry Soda you win!

So to recap:


View this clip on Vimeo

So if you are in the mood for some "yucky fun" go ahead and pick up the Jones Soda 2005 Holiday Pack. You won't be disappointed.

Thanksgiving Recap

Since last time....

On Saturday my dad and his girlfriend came down to Garden from Colorado for Thanksgiving at my mom's house. (Shadow came as well)



After a very good second thanksgiving lunch a couple of us went out into the front yard to play football for a bit. Although I was outnumbered I was able to still cover both Bredon and Trevor fairly handily. (I think it was solely due to my will to win :D )


After just hanging out at the house for the afternoon, Andy came over and we went out to meet the one and only El Charro. (Let me tell you he makes a real good burrito.)


After El Charro a couple of us went over to Andy's go sit around the fire bowl that he had in his backyard. Let me tell you, they are very nice to have on a chilly evening. (I'm not really sure what is up with Jenette in this picture.. but I think it is making Nicole and El Charro laugh.)


We were out at Andy's until midnight, so when we got back we just went to bed.
Today, after a traditional Sunday lunch (roast), we all left to come back home to beat the storm. It looks like we left at the right time, just before it started to snow in Garden, but we were able to miss the tornados that they had up here around Manhattan. When we got here Nicole and I ate pizza.

So in conclusion: I had a good Thanksgiving.

Pre-Thanksgiving Part II

Today was spent just going around places. We went to a couple of furniture stores in Wichita then we came down to Garden and went to Hastings. After Hastings we all played some Game Cube and now Nicole is finishing up a level in Pikman 2 before we go to bed for the night.

I need to get to bed so that i can be rested for another Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow.
Night

Thangs-givin

What is the definition of good Thanksgiving entertainment? (answer pictured below)

In other news Jerry and Jayme got a cute new Lab mix called Amber. (Sorry Amber)

Happy Turkey!

I hope you are having a good Thanksgiving. We (Nicole and I) are having a good time at Nicole mom's house. There are a couple of new things around, and i'll post a pic or two later today. Rock on.

Turkey Break

A couple of fun games for your Thanksgiving break:


FreshGames: FreakOut online (game)

Freak out is a “black out” style game where you divide the board up tring to clear off they playing field when there are balls bouncing all around. It is quite fun and adds a couple of twists to the old game play.




FreshGames: Cubis 2 online

Cubis 2 is an update to the old game Cubis. The game play is simple and fun where you try to get three cubes of the same color touching. Cubis 2 has many different types of Cubes to use which make the game fun to play.

Both games are good time wasters. Just what you need, I know. ^_^

PIFF Week 11 All-Stars

Pos   Player       Pts Team
QB    B. Leftwich  18  Pillagers
RB    L. Johnson   26  Picklers
WR1   C. Johnson   9   &'s
WR2   D. Driver    8   Eldars
WR3   R. Swinton   7   Vampirates
TE    Da. Clark    7   Pillagers
K     N. Rackers   9   Picklers
DEF   Chicago      10  Rebels
DB    C. Carr      2   Steepers
DL1   D. Burgess   6   &'s
DL2   K. Vanden    3   Steepers
Coach Davin        95% Pillagers

Total All-Stars so far:
Snotknockers 17
Picklers 15
Pillagers 15
Rebels 14
Steepers 14
RedBurns 13
&s 13
Kilters 11
Vampirates 10
Eldars 9

Fischer taken to hospital after having seizure on Red Wings bench

NHL.com - News (article)

Red Wings defenseman Jiri Fischer had a seizure on the Detroit bench late in the first period of Monday night's game against the Nashville Predators and was listed in stable condition at a hospital.
Fischer was given CPR at the bench and a defibrillator was used before the 25-year-old native of the Czech Republic was removed on a stretcher. The game was called off with no makeup date immediately announced.

Kinda scary.
I have heard from other places that it also involved a stick to the throat.

Hockey and whatnot.

So.
Hockey went fine. On Saturday we kicked off the weekend playing Truman, who we lost to 10-1. Next we played SLU. Yeah that sucked. We lost 10-0 in the worst performance of the season (not score-wise mind you, I mean we all played pretty crappely (Crappely: the –ly form of the word crap. Def: to perform as good as crap looks. Example: K-State played Crappely against SLU on Saturday). After the game we all headed back to the motel where we had a pizza party furnished by Zack’s parents for is 19th birthday. Zack’s parents are some of the nicest people I have met (Zack’s pretty cool too). After some pizza-ing Nicole, Jenette, and I headed up to our room and we watched the Oregon/Oregon State game and then went to bed.
On Sunday our first game was against SIU-Carbondale. We lost to them 4-2, but if we would have been sharper we should have been able to beat them. Ironically this game, which is the closest game of the season for us, so far, was the most frustrating game. We didn’t play bad, but we should have played better. After the SIU game we played SLU again, we ended up losing 7-1 but the game was *much* closer than the score, and we almost played better than they did. (Seriously it is amazing how we don’t get bounces. If the puck gets deflected by someone else it always goes in the net, if we deflect it, it bounces around a bit and lands behind the goalie, somehow without crossing the line. Grrrr.)
We were out of St. Louis by 12.30 and we made it to Lawrence by 5 or so. There we met up with Newgen and ate at Montana Mike’s for dinner. It is actually a pretty good place to eat at, and you get more than enough food there.
The rest of the weekend was uneventful, and we ended up going to bed rather early last night.
Today I have been grading tests from the morning until 2.30 this afternoon. (Aaron stopped by Radina’s and at brunch with me.) The tests went good overall and I had more A’s than any other grade on it.
Now I am tired and I think I’m gonna head home soon.
So there.

Monday tests

I'm back from hockey. But right now i need to eat some breakfast, and then I'm off to school so that I can get my tests graded before tomorrow (actually to my office and then to Radina’s). I'll have a better update later today when I get finished grading my tests.

Well, if anybody wants to have some coffee I'll be at Radina's from 7.30 until 12 or 1.

Off to hockey

Welp, I heading off to hockey, I'll post about it tomorrow.

Vault, Coming Soon!

VaultKicks.org (article)

VaultKicks.org has received official word from Coca-Cola North America that Vault and Vault Zero, a sugar-free version of Vault, will launch nationally in February 2006 in convenience stores, supermarkets, mass retail, and other locations.

Does Vault = Surge?

We will see soon.

50%

You know what is a funny feeling? Having a 50% chance of having someone you know be dead:

Student found dead in home

Jonathan Micheal Wood, freshman in horticulture, was found at 6:12 a.m. Wednesday inside his home after the RCPD was notified of an unattended death. An investigation by detectives and the Riley County coroner revealed the probable cause of death was suicide by hanging, Grubbs said in the release.

Just to see how many Jon Woods there are at K-State I get this.

So there are two, both are freshmen, and both have the middle initial of M.
I would guess that Johnnie isn't in horticulture, but I don't know that for sure.

I'll guess I'll find out for sure tomorrow up at St. Louis...


Update: I looked up Jeremiah’s address and it is the same as the other Johnnie, so I would say that 'our' Johnnie is ok. Good deal.

Cornstarch fun.

I think I linked to this video a year or so ago, but now it is on YouTube, so I can embed the video here on the blog.

...Cornstarch is really weird...

Regents approve name change

Kansas State Collegian (article)

K-State coach Bill Snyder will coach the final game of his 17-year career at a stadium that will bear his name Saturday.
On Wednesday, the Kansas Board of Regents unanimously approved the immediate renaming of KSU Stadium to the Bill Snyder Family Football Stadium. Snyder announced his retirement as the coach of the Wildcats Tuesday.

It sucks that I can't go to the game.

Vegeterian & Vegan Thanksgiving Recipes

juiceenewsdaily (article)

I wasn't gonna post it but this made me smile:

Here are some questions you may be asking yourself as you consider your situation at Thanksgiving, one of the most clearly meat-influenced holidays on the American calendar.
Why is this guest vegetarian? There are many reasons to follow a vegetarian diet, ranging from deeply considered, long-held personal beliefs, to a doctor's instructions, food allergies and intolerances, or simply a son's or daughter's rebellion.

You know who I'm talking about ^_~.

Anyways, there are some good looking recipes in the article, maybe worth a try if you are gonna be hungry even though there is a wonderfully succulent turkey right in front of you come the 24th.

Is having a child -- even one -- environmentally destructive?

sfgate.com (article)

"We can't be breeding right now," says Les Knight. "It's obvious that the intentional creation of another [human being] by anyone anywhere can't be justified today."
Knight is the founder of the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement, an informal network of people dedicated to phasing out the human race in the interest of the health of the Earth.
"As long as there's one breeding couple," he says cheerfully, "we're in danger of being right back here again. Wherever humans live, not much else lives. It isn't that we're evil and want to kill everything -- it's just how we live."
Knight's position might sound extreme at first blush, but there's an undeniable logic to it: Human activities -- from development to travel, from farming to just turning on the lights at night -- are damaging the biosphere. More people means more damage. So if fewer people means less destruction, wouldn't no people at all be the best solution for the planet?

This sounds like a good plan. The environmentalist wackos can stop breeding to leave the normal humans to live. Unfortunately if people actually start thinking this way, which wouldn't surprise me... they need things to hate, they will start being terrorists.

Is so hard for people to be normal? Maybe it is in San Francisco.

Sony Shoots Down PS3 DRM Rumors

Neoseeker News (article)

Sony sez:

"I would like to clarify that this is false speculation and that PlayStation 3 software will not be copy protected to a single machine but will be playable on any PlayStation 3 console."

That is good to know, but with Sony being uber retarded in the music front I don't know if they deserve my money.

We'll see in about a year...

I...n.......t....e...r.....n...e..............[time out error]

That’s the way the internet has been rolling around these parts for the last couple of days. So with a morning free today I tackled the job of trying to get it fixed. I called HomeStar, but to my surprise they have a new underling working there called Mike. He asked if I did everything possible, and I already had. The problem stumped him... well I guess I should explain the problem...
The problem started Sunday afternoon, the internet went out, which isn't all that surprising, since it does that about once a month here. Anyways, I tried to fix it, but to no avail. I figured that it would fix itself in the morning. Well it did, sort of. I could connect to the internet, but at a very very very slow speed, as in, it would take 30 seconds to load the front page for Google, and all other pages would time out. Also I could connect through Y! Messenger, which made it that much more frustrating since that meant that the internet was working to some degree. So the internet has been like that since Monday morning.
Anyways, so i called up Mike, and he had no idea what was going on, he called HomeStar, and he said it was spyware and to bring the computer down there. I knew it wasn't spyware, so I left the council of them without a solution.
I got fed up and almost resorted to reformatting my hard drive, which I really don't want to do. But before I reformatting I pulled out my compy and disconnected everything that didn't need to be plugged in, and I gave the cable modem un-split cable access. Guess what? The internet worked. Bah!

It turns out that the latest Internet outage messed up my splitters, so I had to go find a configuration that works for the internet and the TV and the same time. Now, I HAD done this before, because the splitter almost always is the problem, but I had tried to fix it during the K-State internet outage, and so I had thought that wasn’t gonna work this time... Ah, I like spending 4 hours to get something really simple done... :P

Oh, well I guess I at least got my files backed up for the seemingly inevitable reformat of the hard drive, and I did figure it out on my own.. I guess that is a plus. Oh well, I need to eat some lunch so I can be off to school. You get a cookie if you read through this whole post (and it doesn't count if you read this part first and then read the post ^_^).

Ah the joys of the internet.

A Black Cultural Fiction?

Sports Filter (article)

Toronto Raptor Eric Williams is pitching a new line of merchandise from his company, Eric Williams Apparel. The first product line is a series of urbanwear dedicated to "Black League Basketball" that existed from 1920-1940. The problem? Most historians agree the league never existed.

It's not that bad to make a product and give it a "history". But you can not claim it to be true when it isn't. That's just plain dumb.

Edit: A better article about it is here.

From the above article:

"These logos had to come from somewhere," Williams says. "Whether there was a league or not those logos ... that's still nice to represent the 'hood or whatever it was. Those were all the inner cities. (Whether it was) an interim league or a professional league, those leagues and those logos, to me they sound like they exist. The story sounds good to me so I'm rolling with it."

Truth? bah! It sounds good, so it must be true...

Snyder to retire today

Kansas State Collegian (article)

Coach Bill Snyder will coach his final game at K-State Saturday against Missouri.
Snyder, K-State's all-time winningest coach with a 135-68-1 record, is expected to announce his retirement at today's 1 p.m. press conference, the Web site www.gopowercat.com reported Monday night.

Snyder came to K-State in 1988 and inherited a program mired in a 27-game winless streak that would stretch to 30 games. The Wildcats were widely known as one of the worst programs in college football, which prompted Sports Illustrated to name the football program "Futility U."

What Snyder did at K-State has since been regarded as the greatest turnaround in college football history.

Half of November

Its cold outside, and it is snowing...

fun. ^_^

PIFF Week 10 All-Stars

Pos   Player       Pts Team
QB    P. Manning   17  Steepers
RB    S. Alexander 29  &'s
WR1   C. Chambers  8   &'s
WR2   H. Ward      7   Vampirates
WR3   L. Fitzgerald7   Rebels
TE    Da. Clark    3   Pillagers
K     J. Elam      9   Eldars
DEF   Carolina     15  Red Burns
DB    C. Carr      4   Steepers
DL1   S. Rice      7   Pillagers
DL2   Ja. Allen    5   Pillagers
Coach Lance        92% Red Burns

Total All-Stars so far:
Snotknockers 17
Picklers 13
Rebels 13
RedBurns 13
Steepers 12
Pillagers 12
Kilters 11
&s 11
Vampirates 9
Eldars 8

Thanksgiving fun?

You bet.

Thanks Jones Soda (click for flavors)!

periodic philosophy

A friend (?) of Amber's had a pretty good post on his (?) blog. He says:

Education should be a privilege of the willing, rather than a requirement of the entire population. Or, simply put, only those who desire an education should be allowed to have one. So, who's allowed to acquire an education? Well, anyone... so long as the express a desire. [...]

Parents need to take more responsibility for their children, and rely less on extra-familial forms of guidance and supervision. I don't have a good solution to this problem, but I can think of a number of great of examples of how this gets screwed up.

1-Problem: (pertinent example) Kid buys violent video game. Parents get bent out of shape about the content of the game, lobby the government to do something about the content of the game.
1-My Opinion: DO NOT f****** ruin the fun for me because you don't like the game. Get your goddamn head on straight and DON'T LET YOUR KID PLAY A VIOLENT GAME!! PROBLEM SOLVED!
2-P: Kid sees porn on the internet. Parents are upset, lobby the government for tighter controls on internet content.
2-O: Why is your kid browsing the internet without supervision? Apparently the ever-imminent danger of your child finding porn is not a concern for you until it actually happens. You're an idiot, and you should be shot.
3-P: Kid has to learn about some sensitive subject in school (I'm not trying to be clever here, it could be any number of things... study of religions, evolution, race relations, etc.). Kid bitches to parents about this stuff. On thing leads to another....
3-O: What, you seriously think hiding your kid from the world is going to help him get through life? Again, you should be shot.

[...]

Organized religion must be eliminated.

think of a pressing issue in the world. Any issue at all. Chances are very good that:

1. Organized religion caused it
2. Organized religion is exacerbating it
3. Organized religion will eventually exacerbate it

Terrorism? Mostly Islamic fundamentalist whackos. Debate over science standards? Mostly Christan fundamentalist whackos. Perpetual war in Israel? Muslims and Jews can't get along, simply because they're Muslims and Jews.

Although I disagree with some of the stuff about Organized Religion, overall the whole post is a pretty good read.

And now I must meet with the other GTAs.

Mmmmmonday.

It's not even 8 and I am up (and at school). :P

Actually it is of my choosing. I decided to get up with Nicole this morning so that I can get my reports graded, and what better place to do that then at Radina's? So if you are in the Manhattan area I will be at Radina's from 8 - 12 (and possibly later) today. Stop on by and have a chai with me.

(‘Chai’ must be a newfangled word because Word doesn’t have it in the dictionary, although it apparently does have ‘newfangled’…)

Indian Food.

For dinner tonight we ate Indian food. Raj (my officemate) bought Nicole and I tickets to the India Student Council’s dinner thingy. There was a pretty wide variety of food there; most of it reminded me of Ethiopian food. It was pretty good though. And there was a fair amount of people that went to it (~300 people I would guess, the picture is from the end of the first shift of people, by the time the second shift arrived this hall, as well as another adjoining hall, was packed. )
Good times.

NFL Reaches Agreement to Return to L.A.

Yahoo! News (article)

he NFL and city officials have reached a preliminary agreement on terms to bring a team back to the Los Angeles Coliseum. Commissioner Paul Tagliabue made the announcement Thursday on the steps of City Hall. But he didn't identify a potential tenant or speculate when Los Angeles might get the team.
He also spoke positively about a team playing at a facility proposed for the Angel Stadium parking lot in Anaheim and didn't rule out the Rose Bowl in Pasadena as a possible home field, either.

So L.A. looks like they will be getting a team, possibly two. This is how will it work out (Or at least how I see it happening):
Saints and Cardinals move to LA, New Orleans will be guaranteed an expansion spot in the near future. The new New Orleans team will expand with either Mexico City or San Antonio, but San Antonio will win out in the end, and then there will be a second round of expansions to put a team back in Arizona and one down in Mexico City. Leaving the NFL with 36 teams by 2012.

You heard it here first.

Goghlines

goghlines : Built with Processing (flash)

This is a very spiffy flash that draws Van-Gogh like paintings. The painting is always changing, which is what is really cool about it, so my pic above of it doesn't do it justice. You should check it out so you can see it in motion.

Extra Extra!

This just in: In a quasi-scientific study it was found that there was no statistical significant difference in the preference of taste between Pringles Sour Cream and Onion and Lay's Stax Sour Cream and Onion chips.

Details on 9 news...

On the Effectiveness of Aluminium Foil Helmets

On the Effectiveness of Aluminium Foil Helmets: An Empirical Study (article)

It has long been suspected that the government has been using satellites to read and control the minds of certain citizens. The use of aluminum helmets has been a common guerrilla tactic against the government's invasive tactics [1]. Surprisingly, these helmets can in fact help the government spy on citizens by amplifying certain key frequency ranges reserved for government use. In addition, none of the three helmets we analyzed provided significant attenuation to most frequency bands.
We describe our experimental setup, report our results, and conclude with a few design guidelines for constructing more effective helmets.

Haha! So if you fear the government is spying on you, do NOT wear an aluminum hat!!! It only helps them spy on you! (The theory of wearing an aluminum hat to block brain signals must have been a big project by the government so that they could actually read your thoughts better!)
It’s time to move on to the new theory of cat-on-the-head to block the signals. (If you do this, please send pics, I'll post em. ^_^ )

ShoOot

ShoOot by Tonypa (Game)

ShoOot is a game where you shoot the circles. It is very easy and very addictive. Good good stuff.
(I know, I know, two posts in a row about games, what have I become? I should be complaining about the RIAA or saying how something should be like something else...)

Ringmania

Ringmania (game)

Ringmania is a simple game where you try to get three colors to touch so the go away. Even though I have seen many games with this mechanic, this one is just better than the rest. I donno why.

Go, play.

How to spot a CD that has Rootkit

If you are in the market to pick up a new CD (I urge you not to do it, but if you must…) you should read over this to learn how to spot CDs that will infect your computer with Rootkit. For example:

Tip-off #1: on the front of the CD, at the left-most edge, in the transparent "spine", you'll see "CONTENT PROTECTED" along with the IFPI copy-protection logo. A few photos make this clearer.

PlayStation 3 Blocks Used Game Use

News at SPOnG.com (article)

The PS3 is going to be the coolest gaming system ever (until the PS4). And there is no way that I am not gonna get one when they first come out. There is nothing that will stop me...

In related news, rumour flared overnight that the PlayStation 3 would prevent the use of used software, with technologies patented by SCEI’s Ken Kutaragi and team set to read, store and delete security codes on a per-disc, per machine basis.
Registered with Japan’s patent office, the concept would see each game disc individually encoded. Upon being played for the first time, the host hardware would store then delete from the disc the security codes required for registering the software with the console.

No wait... not being able to buy used games, or even play my games on someone else's system? That would stop me from getting one.

Hint for Sony: Don't be stupid!

THE Phantom

So Michelle:

This is the guy who played the role of the Phantom for the longest in the show's history. He and a pianst are touring around and they did a community concert here [at Garden City].

So the Thespian club had him sing a couple of songs and the such:


View this clip on Vimeo

Good stuff.

Party Taco!

On the way back from St. Louis we stopped at a gas station that had a Taco Beuno (pronounced as if the B was silent, i.e. Taco Wayno). Anyways, I was very pleased to find that Taco Beuno had an item called a “Party Taco”. Now, you know me, I am a sucker for ‘party’ food, so even though I wasn’t exceedingly hungry I still had to get it.
Let me tell you I was very happy with my Party Taco. We hung for a good 15 minutes chatting about how Taco Bell has nothing on the Wayno. But as it is with all the party food, I had to eat it in the end. And you know what? It was pretty good. Beuno even. Taco Beuno knows how to rock my mouth, and throw a good party taco.

Here I am giving a high-five to my Party Taco.


Keep it real
~Wayno style.

Spun

I was looking around the Jones website, and found a music player. The first song that was played was by Spun, they are pretty good. See:


Edit: Well crap, Blogger really doesn't like music players in posts... Just go checkout their website for free music to download.

Re-Edit: Ok it works again (for me). So in conclusion it may or may not be there for you to listen to. Good luck.

Project Gutenberg

Project Gutenberg is a website that puts expired copyright books on the internet. Which is fine, if you like reading stuff on a computer, or want to pay more to print the book out than it would cost to just buy it in the first place.

But I have found something else that they are doing: turing these books into audio books. Now if you want an audio book for a trip, just download the chapters and burn them onto CD. Viola, (almost) instant trip entertainment.

Now that is really useful.

PIFF Week 9 All-Stars

Pos   Player       Pts Team
QB    P. Manning   17  Steepers
RB    L. Tomlinson 29  Rebels
WR1   M. Harrison  10  Snotknockers
WR2   R. Wayne     7   Eldars
WR3   S. Smith     7   Snotknockers
TE    J. Shockey   5   Snotknockers
K     N. Rackers   12  Picklers
DEF   NY Giants    4   Pillagers
DB    T. Polamalu  8   Rebels
DL1   K. Edwards   5   Picklers
DL2   J. Abraham   3   Vampirates
Coach Pickle       98% Picklers

Total All-Stars so far:
Snotknockers 17
Picklers 13
Rebels 12
RedBurns 11
Kilters 11
Steepers 10
&s 9
Pillagers 9
Vampirates 8
Eldars 7

I have no hockey pics to post, but maybe Chris could make a short highlight movie from the stuff that he recorded...

Anyways, on the way back from St. Louis we stopped at a gas station that had a Sonic attached to it, what was strange was that you had to go inside to order and get your food.

Back

We are back from hockey. We did ok, we didn't win any games, but we didn't suck as much as we did last year.

I need to go take a shower, after that if I am motivated I'll post a pic or two.

Off to St.L

We are off to St. Louis for the first weekend of hockey. I'll have a picture or two when we get back.

Kurt Halsey

It has been awhile since I have seen an artist that I like as much as Kurt Halsey. He draws very simple, yet very emotional things.

I like.

World of Warcraft hackers using Sony BMG rootkit

AppScan (article)

Follow-up from last night and from Sony's Rootkit:

Want to cheat in your online game and not get caught? Just buy a Sony BMG copy protected CD.
World of Warcraft hackers have confirmed that the hiding capabilities of Sony BMG's content protection software can make tools made for cheating in the online world impossible to detect. The software--deemed a "rootkit" by many security experts--is shipped with tens of thousands of the record company's music titles.
Despite making a patch available on Wednesday to consumers to amend its copy protection software's behavior, Sony BMG and First 4 Internet, the maker of the content protection technology, have both disputed claims that their system could harm the security of a Windows system. Yet, other software makers that rely on the integrity of the operating system are finding that hidden code makes security impossible.

Brilliant!

Project Entropia

Project Entropia (game)

Follow-up from game night:

Project Entropia is a virtual universe with a real cash economy. It is set on the distant colony of Calypso, the first habitable planet mankind has ever found. The players take the roles of colonizers that strive to build a new world together, under the threat from various enemies that wants to destroy the colony.
What does this mean?
It means that Project Entropia is a large multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). The normal way such games operate is by purchasing the client software in a store and then pay a subscription fee every 30 days, while the internal game economy is just that –- a game economy.
Project Entropia does the opposite! The client software is free to download over the Internet and there are no subscription fee associated whatsoever. The real cash economy means that the internal Project Entropia economy is linked to the real world economy, by using a currency called the Project Entropia Dollar (PED), which have a fixed exchange rate to the US Dollar (10 PED equals 1 USD).
You as a player use PED to acquire virtual land and equipment in Project Entropia to invest in your avatar’s (Player representation in the virtual universe) growth and abilities. A unique aspect of Project Entropia is that a player may elect to transfer PED back into real life currency, thereby enabling them to earn real money while playing an online computer game.

It is a neat idea, as anyone can play since it is free, and if you are good at it you could make real money at it. So I think it's worth checking out. Somebody recently bought a new space station in the game for 100,000 US dollars, which is crazy that someone would invest that much money into it. At the least I'll check up on this from time to time to see how things are going.

Oh that Thursday

I am currently sitting at a spifftacular new computer in the stat lab. It is pretty nice (i.e. it doesn't suck like the rest of the computers...).
Just thought you would like to know.

p.s. spifftacular is now in the new computer’s dictionary.

Update: There are actually three new computers in the stat lab, rock on!

Row as Christmas lights renamed

BBC NEWS (article)

A decision to call Christmas lights "Winter Lights" in south London has been condemned as showing a "total lack of respect" for Christians.
Mr Gentry, a Conservative member of the joint Lib Dem-Tory controlled borough, told the BBC it went against efforts to promote respect for all faiths.
"The idea that, in some way, the religious festival of Christmas is offensive to others is just daft - I have never heard a single person who's said that."

Good to hear.

More MAD fun...