Saturday, December 31, 2005

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

Sunday, December 25, 2005

Merry Christmas!

Open up something for me. ^_^

Saturday, December 24, 2005

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.

Friday, December 23, 2005

Thursday, December 22, 2005

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.

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

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.)

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

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

Monday, December 19, 2005

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...

Sunday, December 18, 2005

Grow Ornament


Grow Ornament by:Eyemaze (game)

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

Saturday, December 17, 2005

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. :)

Friday, December 16, 2005

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. ^_^

Thursday, December 15, 2005

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!)

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

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.

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

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

Monday, December 12, 2005

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. ^_^

Sunday, December 11, 2005

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.

Saturday, December 10, 2005

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.

Friday, December 09, 2005

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.

Thursday, December 08, 2005

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.

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

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?

Tuesday, December 06, 2005

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

Monday, December 05, 2005

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. :)

Sunday, December 04, 2005

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...

Saturday, December 03, 2005

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...

Friday, December 02, 2005

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?