Today is the last day of January, and if you have been keeping up on BW3 news (I know, who doesn't?) you know that today is the last day for the Smokey Southwestern and Tai wing sauces. These are a favorite of ours, as you can see above... Nicole really likes the Smokey sauce. It is sad to see them go, we had good times together, but all gooey things must come to an end (Amber joke?). In other news I did well in trivia right up to the last question where I lost half my points... Amber won overall.
Google shares fell 12 percent in after-hours trade to $379.00, slicing roughly $15.3 billion from a market capitalization that had stood around $126 billion. To put that in perspective, the decline represents the entire market value of Gannett Co. Inc., the largest U.S. newspaper chain.
That's no good, but not really unexpected. It seemed like Google was getting too big too quick. And you know what I think broke the camel's back? China. I think Google bowing to China meant it lost creditability with its shareholders. I wouldn't be surprised if Google gets down to $150, before it works it way back up to a stable $300 in 6 or so months.
You can now download the new IE7 in a public beta. I tried to install it, but it was being pissy about Windows verification (yes, my windows copy is legit, it was mainly because Firefox is my default browser). So after taking a few extra steps that they wanted me to do I got fed up and said "whatev" or something to that effect. So, if you do try it out let me know how it goes, if it is worthwhile I will give installing it another shot.
First is a very good article about why ethanol will soon be what America runs on. It is well thought out and actually has examples where things have worked and not worked in the past. You want the lowdown? Eventually the free market will make ethanol the primary fuel source here, but it could be sped up by government incentives.
Next a music group called the Artic Monkeys has just sold 120K albums in a single day. How'd they do it? They released the album to the file sharing networks beforehand. No really.
What would you wish for if you had as many wishes as you wanted? If I was this guy I would have wished for more color in my world. But I don't think he needs anymore help deciding on what to wish for... Apparently this flash won a recent contest of some sorts. If you have a spare three minutes, think about spending it with this short movie.
TuneCore is a music delivery and distribution service that gets music you created (even cover versions) up for sale on iTunes and Rhapsody without asking for your rights or taking any money from the sale or use of your music. You get 100% of what iTunes and Rhapsody pay. We take nothing, all the money goes to you. You keep ALL the rights and ownership of your music and master recordings. TuneCore is non-exclusive, so you're never locked in.
The sequel to Underworld is finaly here, and since I liked it the first time around, I thought I would give the second one a shot.
This movie was full of blood, boobs and blue. (This should have been their tagline.) In short this movie was ok, worth a $5 matinee, but defiantly not worth a regular priced movie ticket. It was too violent for me, and it was sort of thin in the unique idea department (UV bullets and the such are part of the reason why I liked the first Underworld). I wouldn't say that this movie is a failure, but it is far from inspiring. It seems that they just took some of the characters from the first movie and made them interact with each other to get a new movie... that is what most sequels are, but I guess I just wanted more from it.
Like I said if you want to watch this grab a matinee, or wait and rent it, I am sure blood splatters look the same no matter what size they are. One last warning: If you don't like the color blue, just stay away, the whole movie is shot in blue hues.
It’s hard to wrap your head around at first, but there are a zillion innovations that will be possible now that German scientists have figured out how to make organic LEDs that are transparent. The most obvious application is to incorporate them into conventional LCDs and “transform laminated glass into a display panel.” OLEDs could also be combined with TFT screens for similar uses.
Good, this is one big step closer to a "Minority Report" future.
Mmmmm... glass coffee table that doubles as a remote...
Bluesfear Worm is a long art board where different artists fill the panels in, and each one continues the previous artists' design and morphs it into their own. It is fun to see elements from one artist to be used two or three panels later.
Canada's biggest record label, publisher and management company is helping out a family sued by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)for copyright infringement.
The privately-owned Nettwerk Music Group is intervening, it says, because the songs downloaded by the Gruebel family include Avril Lavigne, a Nettwerk management client. Nettwerk will fund the Gruebel's defense.
"The current actions of the RIAA are not in my artists' best interests," said Nettwerk chief executive Terry McBride in a statement.
"Litigation is not 'artist development'. Litigation is a deterrent to creativity and passion and it is hurting the business I love."
Chicago lawyer Charles Lee Mudd will defend the Gruebels.
Mudd said the RIAA has "misapplied" the law and that lawsuits should be a "shield, not a sword".
Maybe things are a'changing. Maybe people realize that the only reason I know of Count the Stars, or would ever listen to Missy Elliott is because of file sharing. When I had the ability to share music I was very musical, and would stop by CD stores and buy things. Now that I can't share I don't know what is good that is new so I don't even bother looking at CDs anymore. File sharing helps the music business, it really does.
Shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc., more than doubled in price by midday Thursday in their trading debut on theNew York Stock Exchange. The shares in the initial public offering were priced at $22 a share Wednesday evening, but surged $23.10 to $45.10 in midday trading on the NYSE.
Sucky. Well, good news for Chipotle and the new owners of Chipotle, but for us that are happy with Chipotle the way it is, it sucks. Why? Because now thousands of people will be telling Chipotle how to maximize profits and minimize losses. Losses such as a free burrito on Halloween and free drinks when the line gets too long... Nothing ever gets better for consumers when a good company opens itself up to the money hungry stock exchange. Nothing.
This article is not really about how to be creative (surprise!), it's about what to do if you are creative and you want to stay creative. It really is a good piece... the gist:
Do what you like. Don't care what other people think. Do what you like some more. (Again don't care what other people think)
But really, it is good. It brings up some thoughts that I have had about this blog. Everybody says: "If you want to make a good blog have a topic and stick to it." I have thought about this many times, wondering if I should focus my blog onto a topic, but then I thought that it would be boring then. What I like about my blog is that one post is about the Patriot Act, the next is about a cool flash game, and the next is about taco riots. I like my blog because it is so unfocused. And truthfully I would have stopped posting on my blog loooong ago if I had self imposed guidelines on what to post.
Now I don't claim to be "successful" in the blog world... but I guess what I am trying to say is that you can be way more creative when you do what you like and you don't care what other people think.
Wars and Conflicts From January 7, 2006 to January 8, 2006, users from ytmnd.com joined users from 4chan, KNova, Newgrounds, LUElinks, LUE, General Mayhem, Adult Swim and other internet communities to invade the eBaum's World forums. This attack, which included DDoS attacks, was provoked by Eric Bauman - the owner of eBaum's World - hosting an image created by a ytmnd.com user on his site without crediting the original author. He had also altered the image, a GIF file compiled of Lindsay Lohan photographs, and placed an eBaum's World watermark on it.
"The Raid", or "YTMND-Day", as it is referred to by ytmnd.com users, was planned to begin at 12:00 AM Eastern standard time on January 8th. However, many individuals began the attack shortly after 11:00 PM, causing the eBaum's World forums to experience database errors and a complete crash by 12:00 AM. The eBaum's World forum was soon restored by its tech support team. Later that morning, a ytmnd.com user hacked the eBaum's World forum database, causing all users of the forum to be redirected to ytmnd.com.
Later ytmnd.com would be the subject of a DoS attack. This is actually called the "Second World War" of hacking, the first being between Chinese and American hackers back in 2001.
Things in this "war" got pretty ugly, which also means very funny. (Check it out)
The Motion Picture Association of America was caught with its pants down, admitting to making unauthorized copies of the documentary This Film Is Not Yet Rated in advance of this week's Sundance Film Festival.
This Film Is Not Yet Rated looks at the motion picture ratings system created and run by the MPAA. Director Kirby Dick submitted the film for rating in November. After receiving the movie, the MPAA subsequently made copies without Dick's permission. Dick had specifically requested in an e-mail that the MPAA not make copies of the movie. The MPAA responded by saying that "the confidentiality of your film is our first priority."
Dick later learned that the MPAA made copies of the film to distribute them to its employees, despite the MPAA's stance on unauthorized copying. A lawyer for the MPAA justified the organization's apparent hypocrisy by saying that Dick had invaded the privacy of some MPAA staffers, which justified the MPAA's actions.
Awesome. Just awesome. I wonder what would be the quickest way to kill the MPAA and the RIAA? We need to before their lobbying, suing, and hypocrisy kills America.
This is one of the most impressive things that I have seen on Google maps. Somebody spelled out Luecke (was it Luecke himself?) in trees west of Austin. And it isn't just one line of trees; it is like a grove for each letter.
Make any word into a flickr like logo, with this website. It is actually pretty cool.
In other news my days have been packed full of things to do. Yesterday I got caught up on alot of homework that needed to get done. Today I have to teach and go to a class, but that is about it, besides getting stuff ready for game night for tomorrow.
Although I was not able to go to the lecture I did watch the entire speech at home. (It's a good thing that I cancelled my 1.30 class since it ran until 1.45) It was a good speech, he is by no means a wordsmith, but I feel that it can be overlooked. He presented a very good argument of why we need to be vigilant of terrorism; as a foundation of peace for the future, but I still am not sold on the necessity of some of the means to prevent the domestic terrorism (i.e. citizen surveillance).
Besides the Patriot Act issue I was impressed by not only his openness, but also his wide range of knowledge. After his speech he took questions from the audience ranging from the African Union to Tony Blair to Social Security. He was able to answer all the questions adequately with the only question not answered was: "What did you think of Broke Back Mountain"? To which he said he had not seen.
Overall the lecture was enjoyable and he seemed to enjoy giving the speech. I am glad that he came to K-State and I hope that we can continue to host very important people for the Landon Lecture Series. (Last fall Mikhail Gorbachev spoke at a Landon Lecture.)
I will post a link to a video of the Lecture when it is available. Video of Speech.
Team 1st 2nd 3rd 4th Total Red 5 4 -1 - 8 Black 34 4 9 - 47
Red Team (3rd Qtr.):
Pos Player Pts NFL Team QB M. Hasselbeck 11 Sea Kilters RB S. Davis 0 Car Pillagers WR1 H. Ward 4 Pit Vampirates WR2 J. Jurevicius 0 Sea Picklers WR3 Ro. Smith 2 Den Picklers TE H. Miller 1 Pit Red Burns K J. Reed 6 Pit Pillagers DEF Carolina -28 Car Red Burns DB [Empty] DL1 L. Tatupu 1 Sea Picklers DL2 M. Rucker 2 Car Red Burns Coach Lance Red Burns
Black Team (3rd Qtr.):
Pos Player Pts NFL Team QB J. Plummer -5 Den Steepers RB S. Alexander 20 Sea &'s WR1 S. Smith -2 Car Snotknockers WR2 D. Jackson 5 Sea Rebels WR3 B. Engram 1 Sea Rebels TE [Empty] K J. Kasay 0 Car &'s DEF Seattle -10 Sea Steepers DB C. Bailey 0 Den Elders DL1 J. Peppers 0 Car &'s DL2 B. Fisher 0 Sea Rebels Coach Aaron Rebels
Black continues to build its lead over Red... can the Red team make an amazing comeback in the 4th quarter?
Red Team (4th Qtr.):
Pos Player Pts NFL Team QB M. Hasselbeck - Sea Kilters RB [Empty] WR1 H. Ward - Pit Vampirates WR2 J. Jurevicius - Sea Picklers WR3 A. Randle El - Pit Pillagers TE H. Miller - Pit Red Burns K J. Reed - Pit Pillagers DEF Pittsburgh - Pit Vampirates DB [Empty] DL1 L. Tatupu - Sea Picklers DL2 [Empty] Coach Davin Pillagers
Black Team (4th Qtr.):
Pos Player Pts NFL Team QB [Empty] RB S. Alexander - Sea &'s WR1 D. Jackson - Sea Rebels WR2 B. Engram - Sea Rebels WR3 [Empty] TE [Empty] K [Empty] DEF Seattle - Sea Steepers DB T. Polamalu - Pit Rebels DL1 B. Fisher - Sea Rebels DL2 [Empty] Coach Aaron Rebels
The Vatican has been accused of trying to cash in on the Pope's words after it decided to impose strict copyright on all papal pronouncements.
For the first time all papal documents, including encyclicals, will be governed by copyright invested in the official Vatican publishing house, the Libreria Editrice Vaticana.
The edict covers Pope Benedict XVI's first encyclical, which is to be issued this week amid huge international interest. The edict is retroactive, covering not only the writings of the present pontiff - as Pope and as cardinal - but also those of his predecessors over the past 50 years. It therefore includes anything written by John Paul II, John Paul I, Paul VI and John XXIII.
Brilliant! What better way to spread God's word than by copyrighting somebody who is suppose to be talking for him. Pharisee?
Well we basically just got back from our first weekend of hockey. (Actually we got back about 4 hours ago, but close enough.)
We played well, but lost all our games, we had the lead for a good portion of our first game, but we were able to lose it in the end 5-6. The other two games weren't as close. But we played pretty good, and our team always seems to be getting better (rather than getting worse, as it did for the last couple of years). Ok now on to better stuff.
We went to Best Buy while we were up in St. Louis, it kept us entertained. Nicole really liked the Geek Squad car, so much so that she posed for a picture with it (there were even people around when she did).
Chris was in awe of the 37" plasma TV hooked up to a computer. He played Call of Duty 2 for a good 15-30 minutes on that. We decided that it really is a must have for any house.
Next Nicole found a guitar game for the PS2. The game has alot like Taiko, but with a guitar to play instead of a drum. Nicole wasn't too good at first but she learned pretty quickly.
After that we saw that they had a Dance Dance Revolution game going, and since Nicole always says that she wants one, we made her play it. I got a video of her dancing up a storm which I will post tomorrow.
The only other news is that it is Maria's B-Day for two more hours (she's 19) so; Happy Birthday. And that the Super Bowl will be the Seahawks and the Steelers, if you didn't watch today's games. (*sigh* the Broncos sucked it up...)
Welp, I am going to work on the Red vs. Black game some, look for the updated scores tomorrow morning.
Today in Data Mining we talked about the problems there are in statistics when sampling in high dimensions, such as in a hypercube or a p-dimensional unit sphere... so apparently today is the future, because yesterday there was no talk of higher dimensions, at all, anywhere. And I always thought in the future talk like that would be common place. So the future must be now.
Humm... now I wonder where the transporter is... I want to get lunch but it is all snowy and cold outside...
The new Patriot Search allows you to help governments around the world by making your search activity public. Also, special search syntax (like the terrorist operator) allows for easier processing. Give this a try...
Earlier today, I asked a Justice Department spokesperson which search engines other than Google received requests to provide search records. The answer: Yahoo, AOL, and MSN were also asked to supply search records information, and all complied. Google did not, and that is why the DoJ asked a federal judge on Wednesday to order the company to do so.
At 11am today tickets to see President Bush's were available on a fist come basis. This is the traffic that there was on the way to the ticket office. (It was backed up from Kimball to Dara's, and I am guessing Kimball was pretty backed up too.) Also a group of four girls ran on by me, with backpacks and all, and from where I was at in the picture there was still about a half a mile for them to run still.
Unfortunately for most of the people in this picture they will not be able to get tickets since they are trying to get there at 11, instead of waiting in line before the ticket office opened.
As for me? I will not be going because I have a class that I am teaching during the time of the speech. On further thought I will probably cancel class, but I didn't think of that in time for me to get down there. Oh well.
I'm glad to see that so many others view it as a very important event though.
1. I talked to Dr. Loughin, he said that he will drop me for "non-attendance", since that is something pretty easy to do for him. But he also accused me dragging him into a big lie. Luckily he was joking.
2. I talked to Dr. Boyer. He said to just skip it. Doesn't really fix the problem of a broken syllabus, but it solves my problem for now.
3-5. I talked to Dr. Boyer about this as well. He said that the Dept. is getting a new server that will fix everything. I have my doubts about it fixing everything, but it should be an improvement... I don't ask for much; just a connection to the internet, SAS, and the ability to print.
My karma situation has yet to improve, after figuring out the above problems I successfully inserted my pencil into my finger, which bled more than I thought it would.
I guess one good thing about the day is that my Data Mining class is rescheduled for tomorrow since 50% of the class (the other person) is going to be waiting in line to get tickets to see President Bush's speech.
So now I think I am going to go home and play Civ IV. I was going to work on my master's report. But if God wanted me to work on it today he wouldn't have poked me with a pencil and made me bleed... or something like that.)
Today is starting off not so hot. "Why" you ask? Consider:
1. I need to drop a class but the last day to do so was yesterday over Kats. So now I will have to actually fill out a drop slip, grumble cakes.
2. I have to write up two days worth of notes over something that the book spends 10 paragraphs on, and previously I spent 5 minutes on. That is just stupid.
3. Even if I were to write up the notes it wouldn't be of much help, because the printer in our lab doesn't work here, at all. It hasn't for three days now.
4. So I should be able to print off the notes to the class that I have in the University computing lab, right? Normally yes, but I have to also print off 23 pages for today's Data Mining class... that's almost a quarter of my free prints for the semester, for just one day of class notes.
5. And even if the printer in the lab worked, it probably wouldn't matter, because there traditionally is only one out of seven computers that can access the internet *and* print. I am using that computer right now, sans printing function. And the only reason I was able to get this one is because I got here at 7 this morning, in hopes of getting said above items done. It is now 45minutes later and all I have done is found out 5 things that I can not get done.
I better catch some dang good karma later on today...
Today was the first day where it really felt like a normal school day. I ended up sticking around my office until 8pm working on my Masters project. Then Nicole came by to pick me up and we ate dinner at Chili's and then we went food shopping for Gamenight tomorrow.
In other news President Bush is giving the 142nd Landon Lecture here at K-State on Monday. link
Oi am I tired. Not mentally, not really physically either, I'm just kinda overall tired. It's probably because we had hockey practice for the first time in about two months.The practice went pretty good. There were five (!) new people that showed up for the practice. Two of them were good and the other three not too bad. But all of them look like they could help out the team if they will stick with it.
Other than that my yesterday was uneventful... I guess I got some stuff together for the CafePress order (last call for shirts).
Ok, it's getting to that time where I need to go get bootstrapped... that doesn't sound that nice... maybe it's not suppose too...
Project Quaero is considered to represent France's and Germany's response to Google and Yahoo, meant to lift Europe to the United States and Japan's research and development status. France's contribution(EUR150 million) will come from the Agency for Industrial Innovation, while Thomson and the French National Centre for Scientific Research will lead the French part of Quaero.
The EU just doesn't get it.
A few years back the EU gave exclusive rights to people that compiled data into databases. So exclusive were the rights that it would be illegal for someone to make the same compilation of the data, even if they didn't copy the first database. (For example if I was the first person to compile all of the NFL teams to ever play, nobody else could ever do it, even if they had gone to all the games and wrote them down, because I had the rights to that database.)
The reason that the EU did this was to encourage companies to make databases, because then the companies would not have to be fearful that some other company would steal their data. The EU figured that this would be the solution to US's dominance over them in the internet search field.
Guess what, it backfired. Even though they were advised against it they still thought that exclusive rights to databases were the way to go. But what happened is as soon as one company made a compilation of the web they owned it. And if that company sucked or if they wanted to charge too much to access the database, all web search engine progress in the EU would be stopped.
Now how does that compare to the US? Well with free markets the people that can make the best (most efficient, easy to use, relevant, ...) databases win. That’s why Yahoo and Google are the giants they are and Lycos, Hotbot, and the others are not. It isn't because Google stole Lycos' database, it was because they were a better company.
So now the EU is funding a search engine because if things continue the way they are going now Google will soon own the world. I don't think money is going to make people use a search engine, I think it is innovation. And with the laws that the EU passes to 'help' companies they are killing themselves. (A tax on iPods based on their storage space??? Why?)
Team 1st 2nd 3rd 4th Total Red 5 4 - - 9 Black 34 4 - - 38
Red Team (2nd Qtr.):
Pos Player Pts NFL Team QB M. Hasselbeck 10 Sea Kilters RB C. Portis 2 Was Pillagers WR1 H. Ward 2 Pit Vampirates WR2 J. Jurevicius 1 Sea Picklers WR3 Ro. Smith 6 Den Picklers TE C. Cooley 2 Was Vampirates K J. Reed 0 Pit Pillagers DEF Carolina -19 Car Red Burns DB M. Brown 0 Chi Vampirates DL1 R. Mathis 0 Ind Kilters DL2 L. Tatupu 0 Sea Picklers Coach Pickle Picklers
Black Team (1st Qtr.):
Pos Player Pts NFL Team QB P. Manning 12 Ind Steepers RB S. Alexander -3 Sea &'s WR1 S. Smith 13 Car Snotknockers WR2 M. Harrison 1 Ind Snotknockers WR3 S. Moss 6 Was Snotknockers TE D. Graham 0 NE &'s K M. Vanderjagt -2 Ind Steepers DEF Chicago -26 Chi Rebels DB C. Bailey 1 Den Elders DL1 D. Freeney 2 Ind Rebels DL2 J. Peppers 0 Car &'s Coach Nicole Snotknockers
Half way through the game and the Red team is still behind by 29. Here are the lineups for the 3rd quarter.
Red Team (3rd Qtr.):
Pos Player Pts NFL Team QB M. Hasselbeck - Sea Kilters RB S. Davis - Car Pillagers WR1 H. Ward - Pit Vampirates WR2 J. Jurevicius - Sea Picklers WR3 Ro. Smith - Den Picklers TE H. Miller - Pit Red Burns K J. Reed - Pit Pillagers DEF Carolina - Car Red Burns DB [Empty] DL1 L. Tatupu - Sea Picklers DL2 M. Rucker - Car Red Burns Coach Lance Red Burns
Black Team (3rd Qtr.):
Pos Player Pts NFL Team QB J. Plummer - Den Steepers RB S. Alexander - Sea &'s WR1 S. Smith - Car Snotknockers WR2 D. Jackson - Sea Rebels WR3 B. Engram - Sea Rebels TE [Empty] K J. Kasay - Car &'s DEF Seattle - Sea Steepers DB C. Bailey - Den Elders DL1 J. Peppers - Car &'s DL2 B. Fisher - Sea Rebels Coach Aaron Rebels
Need to download a Google video and have it in a useable format? (Not .flv) Here you go.
In other news the Broncos have a shot at going to the Super Bowl, and Civ IV is a fun game. Also, I am sorta thirsty. You now know everything about me at this moment.
1up has an article where kids play old-school games and are amazed by how much they suck compared to video games now. The kids say some pretty funny stuff:
Garden City lost a longtime advocate and pioneer Wednesday with the death of Bonnie Talley, 77, the city's first female commissioner and mayor. "To me she was the epitome of a person who was entirely selfless with her service to the community," City Manager Bob Halloran said of Talley, who died at Park West Plaza in Wichita. "As a cheerleader for this community, she was unparalleled." "Although she was not a Garden City native, she was Miss Garden City," Mesa said. "She was a trailblazer and champion for the strong stances she took as mayor." "It was a real pleasure to work with and for her," Halloran said. "She not only governed with her brain but with her heart."
I knew Bonnie Talley mainly from church. She was one of the nicest people you ever met and she really did love Garden City. While she was in office she helped develop the City aggressively which is one of the reasons why Garden is now the dominate town in SW Kansas. It is sad to see her go but I am glad that she was able to live such a fulfilling life.
I'll start off with the most important thing of my day first... although since it is 10.30am, I guess anything that I do this early must be important, since during winter break I usually woke up around this time... Anyways, I just watched a small spider take on a spider about three times as large in a fight to the death. I thought the small spider had no chance, but in the end the big spider was lunch... or maybe brunch since it is still morning. In other news Loughin's Bootstrapping class looks like it will be hard, but worth the effort.
My plans for the rest of the day are: 1. Blow an hour. 2. Sit through Data Mining. (There is a 90% chance that I am gonna drop the class.) 3. Eat some lunch. 4. Write up the last major changes to Mad. 5. Chill the most
I also played Super Mario Brothers 1,2, and 3, and many more games.
The emulator is kinda choppy at times, but I really can't complain, I'm playing Nintendo games online. This is just what I needed to ensure no work gets done as we start the new school year! >:)
Garfield Randomizer randomly puts cells of Garfield together to make a new comic. Sometimes they are funny, sometimes they make gibberish, all the time it is entertaining.
For this first time in awhile the K-State Hockey team does not have any t-shirts to sell. Half of the problem is not having a design for the new t-shirts; the other half is not having money to print them up.
I decided to work on the first problem for a bit tonight. This is the best that I came up with, not great, but also not too bad:
Oh, I better get off to bed now, I have to wake up early in the morning.
AS far as Kyle Stoneman is concerned, the campus police were the ones who started the Facebook wars. "We were just being, well, college students, and they used it against us," says Mr. Stoneman, a senior at George Washington University in Washington. He is convinced that the campus security force got wind of a party he and some buddies were planning last year by monitoring Facebook.com, the phenomenally popular college networking site. The officers waited till the shindig was in full swing, Mr. Stoneman grouses, then shut it down on discovering under-age drinking. Mr. Stoneman and his friends decided to fight back. Their weapon of choice? Facebook, of course. Once again they used the site, which is visited by more than 80 percent of the student body, to chat up a beer blast. But this time, when the campus police showed up, they found 40 students and a table of cake and cookies, all decorated with the word "beer." "We even set up a cake-pong table," a twist on the beer-pong drinking game, he says. "The look on the faces of the cops was priceless." As the coup de grâce, he posted photographs of the party on Facebook, including a portrait of one nonplussed officer.
Yard Invaders is a re-make of Space Invaders. But this time you are a French kid that has a duck and you throw apples at the invaders. Even though I generally don't like remakes, (usually because they just re-make the exact same game, only they make it worse) this one is actually really good. The best improvement is the apples, because you only have a limited amount of shots before you have to run around and collect more ammo, also it takes more than one hit to kill a spaceship, which normally bugs me but in this game it is fun... prob. because they spin out of control for a second when you hit them with an apple. I just can't figure one thing out about the game; What's the duck for?
Team 1st 2nd 3rd 4th Total Red 5 - - - 5 Black 34 - - - 34
Red Team (1st Qtr.):
Pos Player Pts NFL Team QB E. Manning -10 NYG Picklers RB T. Barber 2 NYG Red Burns WR1 H. Ward 3 Pit Vampirates WR2 P. Burress 0 NYG Red Burns WR3 A. Randle El 0 Pit Pillagers TE C. Cooley -3 Was Vampirates K J. Feely 0 NYG Kilters DEF Carolina 7 Car Red Burns DB R. Mathis 0 Jax Red Burns DL1 S. Rice 2 TB Pillagers DL2 M. Strahan 4 NYG Vampirates Coach Lance Red Burns
Black Team (1st Qtr.):
Pos Player Pts NFL Team QB C. Palmer 2 Cin Rebels RB C. Dillon 2 NE Eldars WR1 S. Smith 11 Car Snotknockers WR2 C. Johnson 1 Cin &'s WR3 J. Galloway 2 TB Snotknockers TE J. Shockey 1 NYG Snotknockers K J. Kasay 9 Car &'s DEF Washington -1 Was &'s DB T. Polamalu 3 Pit Rebels DL1 O. Umenyiora 2 NYG Steepers DL2 J. Peppers 2 Car &'s Coach Amber &'s
It looks like the Red team is gonna need to step it up for the next quarter. Here are the lineups.
Red Team (2nd Qtr.):
Pos Player Pts NFL Team QB M. Hasselbeck - Sea Kilters RB C. Portis - Was Pillagers WR1 H. Ward - Pit Vampirates WR2 J. Jurevicius - Sea Picklers WR3 Ro. Smith - Den Picklers TE C. Cooley - Was Vampirates K J. Reed - Pit Pillagers DEF Carolina - Car Red Burns DB M. Brown - Chi Vampirates DL1 R. Mathis - Ind Kilters DL2 L. Tatupu - Sea Picklers Coach Pickle Picklers
Black Team (2nd Qtr.):
Pos Player Pts NFL Team QB P. Manning - Ind Steepers RB S. Alexander - Cin &'s WR1 S. Smith - Car Snotknockers WR2 M. Harrison - Ind Snotknockers WR3 S. Moss - Was Snotknockers TE D. Graham - NE &'s K M. Vanderjagt - Ind Steepers DEF Chicago - Chi Rebels DB C. Bailey - Den Elders DL1 D. Freeney - Ind Rebels DL2 J. Peppers - Car &'s Coach Nicole Snotknockers
Andrea (Newgen's fiancee) had been planning for a surprise birthday party for Newgen for a couple of weeks and today was the day. So how did it go? Well he at least didn't run away when he got there. We even got him is blow out candles.
Other than the mandatory copyright infringement, that go with birthday singing, Andrea also had planned out a murder mystery to do. It was pretty fun, and luckily the acting was pretty low key. That way I didn't have to worry about my self-imposed Irish accent (not really, I wouldn't do that, although Chris was taking about using a Russian accent.)
But no, I wasn't the killer... although i did have an affair with the victim's fiancee... which works out fine for me since she was played by Nicole. ^_^
Marcus Vick, the younger brother of Atlanta Falcons star quarterback Michael Vick, was dismissed from the Hokies on Friday following a series of legal transgressions - including two traffic violations Dec. 17 that were revealed Friday - and his vicious stomp on an opponent's leg during the Gator Bowl. "It's not a big deal," Vick told the newspaper. "I'll just move on to the next level, baby."
After the NFL witnessed how one player can destroy a whole team (Terrell Owens) by acting like a child. Marcus Vick may be a low round, poorly paid, "high risk" player.
Here are some clips from the 2005 Freestyle Formal Dance competition held in Garden City, Kansas.
First we have Chris:
He started off strong with a Kicking Squirrel, and then moved to the Boxing Nun, but his lack of conditioning showed and he ended off the routine weakly. Overall score: 7.75
Next was my performance:
I started off with a Power Mill which I rolled into a Red Signal Call and then quickly into a Half-Moth (Memphis Style), then I improved a little and threw in a Flashing K (to the left), then on to my normal power move of the Box Shove, after that on to my crowd pleasing Flapping Amy (During which I said "crap" a 0.50 point deduction), you can see that the penalty phased me as I started with a Robot Monkey, but I stopped mid-stride and changed it to a Green Wave, and I concluded with a Superman. I lost intensity during the Green Wave which hurt me, but in the end I think I performed quite well. Overall Score: 8.00 - 0.50(penalty) = 7.50
Next was Jenette:
Jenette traditionally goes with her Belly Dancing background and steals the show with a Reverse Pepper Grinder to start off her routines, but she surprised everyone and started off with an Angry Ape, a hard move to follow up. But showing her brilliant dancing style she moved directly into an Angry Monkey. Finally she kept the quality of her routine up with the technically difficult Turnip Picker. Overall Score: 8.00
Next up was Nicole:
Nicole is always a crowd favorite and is regarded as the best "East Coast" Style Formal Dancer. She stared out with a New York Shimmy, which she rolled quickly into a Mexican Two-Step, she then went directly into a Canadian Two-Step and then obviously to the American Two-Step, to finish off the "North American Two-Step" a dance combo which she pioneered. She displayed a brilliant amount of Freestyle Formal Dance knowledge with the performance and the judges rewarded her for it. Overall Score: 8.50
After Nicole was Newgen the reigning champion of Freestyle Formal Dance:
He displayed why he was the champion, starting off with a Double Bake and then a Dog Leg, and then a Robertson Slide and then another Dog Leg. Then, as to taunt the other Dancers, he goes with a Double Bake again and *ANOTHER* Dog Leg, amazing, he truly is a master of the Freestyle Formal Dance. He then finished off his dance with a Left Throwdown, which as you can hear, impressed the crowd. Overall Score: 9.25
But not to be outdone, the new Dancer from the North, known as Pickle, went last:
He started in jaw-dropping fashion with a Minnesota Shimmy, then a Joker Wave, and then another Minnesota Shimmy, then to an Orange Toe Grab, then a Golden Reach and a Hole Sweep. But what would happen next would go down in Freestyle Formal Dance history; he does a Half Kansas Free Fall into a Minnesota Shimmy! Brilliant! I will always remember where I was when I saw that. This brought the crowd to their feet, and left no doubts in the judges mind's who was the 2005 Freestyle Formal Dance Champion; "Minnesota Shimmy" Pickle. Overall Score: 9.75
First for an introduction to Scientology you should watch this South Park. While you do keep in mind that everything they say in it is almost exactly true (besides the level advancing off of just reading the E-meter, I think there are a whole bunch of other tests they do as well).
Scared yet? Well you should be, or maybe relived since it seems that most people find this stuff to be a little to Sci-Fi for their tastes in religion.
Next watch, Special Assignment report on Scientology:
My favorite quotes are:
"... a cult implies secrecy right? Were open from 10 in the morning to 9.30 at night... it's not very secret." Oh zing! Also McDonald's "Secret Sauce" isn't secret because they are open from 8 am to 11 pm.
"The Dunnings willingly gave up their retirement fund ...and signed up their daughter for a billion year contract." I can't help but laughing at that. *A Billion* year contract. What kind of retirement plan comes with that?
It's like the Daily Show, but I think it was trying to be a serious report.
O'Reilly presents a pretty even case here:
I don't think that anyone will say that some of the programs that they put on are good, such as Narconon, but there is way more to the religion than these beneficial programs.
City commissioners Tuesday unanimously approved an ordinance rezoning 6 acres of the former Steel and Pipe warehouse site on 3rd Street so that Best Buy can be built. Along with it, developers plan three more buildings that can each house up to four tenants and possibly a drive-through restaurant or bank.
I heard on the news that they plan to have the Best Buy open by the fall of 2006. Rock on!
Even though the 2005 PIFF season is over, there is no reason to forget about fantasy football during the playoffs. I present the first ever 'Red vs. Black Game'. I somewhat randomly divided the PIFF teams into two divisions. The Black division is teams that are currently located in the Central Pirate Islands Region (Eastern Kansas), the Red division is the rest of the teams. So division alignments go like this:
Red Division: Harbor Coast Red Burns Pirataly Vampirates Scotslandi Kilters Svinksland Pillagers Tsukestan Picklers
The way the Red vs. Black game will work is as follows: Each round of the playoffs corresponds to one quarter in the game. For each playoff round the best players from each division during the 2005 season will be the roster for the quarter. Only players that are playing in that round of the playoffs will be fielded for the fantasy game. After each round of playoffs the teams will be changed to keep the best active players playing in the fantasy game. The division with the highest total score after the four quarters is the winner.
Other rules: It is possible that a division will not be able to field a player for a position, that position will be left empty. If one division can not field a DEF, then the other division does not need to field one. The "Coach" spot is just ornamental, and just is a reflection of who has the most players in the game at that time, the Coach does not need change the line-up from week to week, or at all, since the lineup is pre-determined.
So without further delay here are the lineups for the 1st quarter of the Red vs. Black game.
Red Team (1st Qtr.):
Pos Player Pts NFL Team QB E. Manning - NYG Picklers RB T. Barber - NYG Red Burns WR1 H. Ward - Pit Vampirates WR2 P. Burress - NYG Red Burns WR3 A. Randle El - Pit Pillagers TE C. Cooley - Was Vampirates K J. Feely - NYG Kilters DEF Carolina - Car Red Burns DB R. Mathis - Jax Red Burns DL1 S. Rice - TB Pillagers DL2 M. Strahan - NYG Vampirates Coach Lance Red Burns
Black Team (1st Qtr.):
Pos Player Pts NFL Team QB C. Palmer - Cin Rebels RB C. Dillon - NE Eldars WR1 S. Smith - Car Snotknockers WR2 C. Johnson - Cin &'s WR3 J. Galloway - TB Snotknockers TE J. Shockey - NYG Snotknockers K J. Kasay - Car &'s DEF Washington - Was &'s DB T. Polamalu - Pit Rebels DL1 O. Umenyiora - NYG Steepers DL2 J. Peppers - Car &'s Coach Amber &'s
I'll keep you updated on the scores as they come in this weekend.
American football, basketball and baseball have millions of followers, but they can't match soccer for sheer excitement, says a team of scientists. The team decided to make unpredictability - how often a leading team is overcome by an opponent with a worse record - the best measure of how exciting a league is.
This just in: The sport of coin flipping is just declared the most exciting sport in the world. Scientists say it is because even underdogs in the sport can win 50% of the time.
What happens when scientists want to prove something? They make up ways to measure excitement, where how random a game winner is, is the scale. How very, very stupid. (I hope these guys weren't statisticians...)
Swoop to Nuts is a game where you guide a flying squirrel through the air to gather nuts and stars. It is a somewhat addictive game, where I kept on saying: "Well let me try this, and this I'll post about it." It took me awhile to get used to the controls. They are basically: move the mouse left to slow down/ go up, move you mouse right to speed up/go down, and get acorns to stay aloft. If you need some work-ignoring fun, this is a good option.
I said in my innocence, unaware of the futility the teams would display on the field. Unaware of the futility of trying to get home at a reasonable time it would be. Unaware of the futility that filed goal kicking really is.
"Hey, it sounds like something fun to do, right?"
Not right, it was not even close to right. Close to right would be a score, three points, game over, you can go home. Far off from right would be wide left, field goal no good, sit, stay, cheer, sneer; "Sorry, let's try to get a win next hour."
"It'll be an enjoyable evening of light football fun." I say. Fun, like watching a bunch of inept people trying to write a paper. "And done." They would say after making the title, forgetting that they would actually have to write the paper to be done. Then they would write the paper for 5 long hours, but not only that, just before anyone could say "done" the paper would be erased, three times, because they pressed "Ctrl-A" then Delete. They would have all of the control in the world, and then delete all that progress with one fell swoop, or should I say kick. "We'll get 'em next time!" they would say. As they sit down to attempt to finish the paper again, trying a new way of hitting delete, just before the paper is complete
"Hey, let's go watch the Orange Bowl at BW3's!" I say in my innocence. Unaware of what was ahead for me.
The Ambersandia &'s (Amber) were able to knock off the defending Champion Kreplachistan Rebels (Aaron) to become the new PIFF Champions. Good job Amber.
I have made a couple of T-shirts on CafePress to mark the occasion. I will buy Amber and my self one. If anybody else wants anything off of CafePress let me know by mid week and I'll order all the stuff together.
Here are the All-Star teams for the 2005 Pirate Island Fantasy Football season.
First Team:
Pos Player Pts Team QB C. Palmer 164 Rebels RB S. Alexander 280 &'s WR1 S. Smith 90 Snotknockers WR2 D. Hall 72 Pillagers WR3 L. Fitzgerald71 Rebels TE A. Gates 59 Kilters K N. Rackers 113 Picklers DEF Chicago -42 Rebels DB T. McGee 58 &'s DL1 Ja. Taylor 38 Red Burns DL2 D. Burgess 37 &'s Coach Amber &'s
Second Team:
Pos Player Pts Team QB P. Manning 149 Steepers RB L. Johnson 224 Picklers WR1 M. Harrison 68 Snotknockers WR2 J. Galloway 66 Snotknockers WR3 C. Johnson 67 &'s TE J. Shockey 45 Snotknockers K J. Feely 74 Kilters DEF Carolina -77 Red Burns DB C. Carr 49 Steepers DL1 S. Rice 35 Pillagers DL2 O. Umenyiora 35 Steepers Coach Aaron Rebels
Worst Team:
Pos Player Pts Team QB D. Bledsoe 73 Red Burns RB R. Droughns 92 Vampirates WR1 I. Bruce 24 Eldars WR2 M. Muhammad 29 Red Burns WR3 W. Pounder 30 Kilters TE B. Franks 7 Eldars K P. Edinger 36 Red Burns DEF Cincinnati -216 &'s DB R. Mathis 13 Red Burns DL1 Do. Edwards 10 Eldars DL2 W. McGinest 13 Eldars Coach Newgen Eldars
The First and Second teams are based off the scores of the best player a team has in that position. The Worst team is still the best player a team has in that position, but the worst at it in the league. The Coaches we picked by the number of players they had on the first and second teams, and not on the worst team (with some weighting added in).
Pos Player Pts Team QB K. Collins 17 &'s RB L. Johnson 28 Picklers WR1 R. Moss 9 &'s WR2 S. Smith 7 Snotknockers WR3 J. Galloway 7 Snotknockers TE J. Witten 4 Steepers K J. Feely 9 Kilters DEF Indianapolis -2 Kilters DB C. Carr 5 Steepers DL1 O. Umenyion..5 Steepers DL2 S. Rice 4 Pillagers Coach Pickle 89% Picklers
