July 2003 Archives

Wooooooooooooo

Just got some dinner from my pizza place. And with it came a new menu. On the new menu, a URL. Hmmm, I said. So, I went to the URL and found out ....

My pizza place now takes delivery orders online!!!!!!!

Woot! Even less human interaction! ;)

While we're on the subject ....

More idiots:

CNN.com - Vatican fights gay marriages - Jul. 31, 2003

Come on now. I mean, I was raised Catholic, was an altar boy, worked in the church for 4 years, hell, my Mom even teaches religion at a Catholic school these days, but this is freakin ridiculous. TWO YEARS writing a paper on why gay marriage is bad? How about 2 years writing a paper on why fucking little boys when you are a priest is bad? How about 2 years on why killing other people in the name of God is bad? There are plenty of much more appropriate topics these days to write papers on than why gay people are bad.

First off, they aren't! Secondly, why do you care? I think half the reason for this is so that half the priests don't leave the priesthood and go marry other guys. (And though this is a broad generalization, much of what I have seen first hand in priests makes me believe many many many of them are gay, to which I have no problem whatsoever with and neither should the Vatican.)

Next thing you know, Bush is going to be saying that his statements yesterday he was told by God and that's why he said them.

Ugh. Fuckin idiots ....

Yet more proof

RIIA vs The World

Canadians invading Rio

Yahoo! News - Rush Roars Back to 'Rio'

Nice! New Rush triple live CD and double live DVD!

What's up with all the bands doing shows from Rio? Iron Maiden released their Rio discs like 2 years ago.

Wonderful Comments ..

I love people who don't understand blogs at all. This post (from almost 2 months ago), got a comment today from someone today who obviously doesn't. Or at least doesn't understand this thing called an opinion. Says in his comment "Mate, if you aint got nothin good to say shut the fuck up!". Umm, no, this is my blog, my place to write, I can say whatever the fuck I would like. And anyways, do you send letters to every critic that says bad things about something you like? Somehow I doubt it. The funniest part, he put a fake address in as his e-mail address, so not only is he a whiner who doesn't understand opinions or blogs, but also is a fuckin coward that someone might actually respond to his useless comments.

SCO vs Linux (yes, again)

Rings ...

Can someone explain to me why girls where rings on what is supposed to be their wedding ring/engagement ring finger when they are neither married nor engaged?

Just tends to confuse boys. I know since its one of the first things I look at if I find a girl attractive. No need to deal with girls who are already well attached.

This is confusing ...

CNN.com - Michael Jackson: Don't jail downloaders - Jul. 22, 2003:

"I am speechless about the idea of putting music fans in jail for downloading music. It is wrong to download, but the answer cannot be jail," Jackson said in a statement released Monday.

Ummmm, Michael Jackson said something smart. I am VERY VERY confused.

Das Gusterites

Michael J. Radwin just found out about Guster, a band I have followed for a long time.

I knew I was going to like these guys the first time I saw them back in, I think, 1996. They were opening for Buffalo Tom at a BU show. There were 3 guys on stage, 2 playing acoustic guitars, 1 playing bongos. For their last (or maybe second to last song) they did "Down In It" by Nine Inch Nails. I was totally blown away.

I would make 2 suggestions to Michael. First off, get their older stuff. They made some changes in their sound on the latest album, which I haven't yet gotten totally used to. Some of the songs have grown on me, but I don't yet love the album like I have loved the others.

The second is to SEE THEM LIVE. They put on a very good show, but also a very fun show. Ryan is freakin HILARIOUS up on stage.

So, from an old Guster fan to a possible new one, those are my suggestions.

Songs that everyone knows

I'm trying to get a list of songs together that everyone knows, so I can learn them on guitar. If you have any suggestions, post em!

A site that needs RSS

I definitely think someone over at Craigslist needs to program RSS feeds for their information. Would make it much easier than having to think to go to the site.

Linux Licenses?

InfoWorld: SCO readies new Linux licensing program

This is just HILARIOUS. I mean, first off, doesn't selling a license for linux violate the GPL? Second of all, no one is going to buy a license for the FREE kernel. SCO has gone about this is such a bad way, its just a freakin PR scam at this point. IBM should just buy them and then fire everyone involved.

Some cleanups ..

Went through and did a bunch of cleanup on the site today.

Lesse, I cleaned up the CSS, so now it validates. I cleaned up the HTML and my template, so now it validates too :)

I also updated my blogroll (which some day I will actually use BlogRolling for, so that its up to date.

Thanks!

Big ups to Juri for fixing just about every problem I had with Straw, my news aggregator, over the course of the last 24 hours.

Now this is a philosophy to live by

The professor then picked up a jar of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles, of course, rolled into the open spaces between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar and of course the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous yes.

The professor then produced two cans of beer from under the table and proceeded to pour the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the grains of sand. The students laughed.

"Now", said the professor, as the laughter subsided, "I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things - your family, your partner, your health, your children, your friends, your favorite passions - things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full. The pebbles are the other things that matter, like your job, your house, your car. The sand is everything else - the small stuff.

If you put the sand into the jar first", he continued, "there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for your life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you. Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play
with your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your partner out dancing. Play another 18. There will always be time to go to work, clean the house, give a dinner party and fix the disposal. Take care of the golf balls first - the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand."

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the beer represented. The professor smiled. "I'm glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of beers."

Ring Ring ...

Watched Phone Booth last night before curling up with HP5.

I liked it. I thought it was a cool psychological thriller. Showed how someone can break down the human spirit in many different ways. Keifer definitely did a good job with the voice of the crazy guy in this one, was really believable. I thought the dialog was good too and since the movie was pretty much based on dialog, it had to be in order to make this movie anywhat good. (hmm, is anywhat a word?). I thought Colin pulled off his part well as well. Going from the slick hipster to a babbling idiot who looked like he was ready to pee his pants was an interesting transition. A good movie. Nothing spectacular, but worth watching.

Biggest disappointment was the lack of Special Features on the DVD. Just a commentary and some trailers. BORING.

Definitely makes you think never to answer a pay phone though :)

Harry Potter ...

I finally finished Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix last night. I thought it was good. Definitely flew through it (when I read). People have said it was darker than the earlier ones. Yes, I definitely see that, but I see it much more of a coming of age story in this book. Harry is struggling through things that all teenagers suffer through. Don't you remember this time in your life? You were old enough to not be a little kid anymore, but were still not old enough to be an adult? I remember going through all sorts of struggles at this time in my life. Things like trying to figure out who I was and who I wanted to be, what I was looking for in life, etc. Hating the world, hating adults, not understanding the opposite sex, etc. I think it was well portrayed in this book.

Overall, it was a good book. Don't really like the fact that I don't know when the story is going to continue, because I felt like this one was way more of a cliff hanger than the earlier ones. I think she did a good job continuing the story along and moving it towards the final two books.

I think some of the subplots in this one are going to be expanded on a lot more in the next two. I think some of the characters introduced in this one are going to show up much more strongly in the next two books. I think more will be killed off as well. Hell, the author even hinted that she may kill Harry in the last book, so you never know.

Well, I'm not great at writing these, especially when I want to keep details of the story out of the review, so I'm done now.

Friendster ...

Interesting note, Jack Osbourne actually mentioned Friendster on Kimmel last night. Guess it really is catching on. My biggest problem with Friendster right now is its extreme growing pains. The other day, I was trying to approve a new friend and had to log in about seven times before I could even get to the page, got temporarily unavailable notices two or three time, got Document Contains No Data about three other times. Not a very friendly web experience. Hopefully they can get past these growing pains and actually start having a service that is worth something.

Eventually I can see them adding new features too, like IM groups and whatnot, but I really think they need to stabilize the current product before they do anything else.

PJ Bootlegs ...

Since I raved about how cool Live Phish is a while back, I thought I just must rave about Pearl Jam's similar service.

Riding in this morning to work, blasting CDs of the Pearl Jam show I was at two weeks ago, I was grinning. I JUST went to this show and already have fully mastered high quality CDs of the show. How cool!

Pearl Jam in the past has been releasing CDs of all of their concerts from their tours for the last few years. This tour they decided to do it on the fly. They opened up Pearl Jam Bootlegs where you are able to order any of the shows from the current tour right away.

I did this a week before the show I went to. A few days after the show, I got an e-mail with a link to un-mastered low quality MP3s of the show. Even though these were supposed to be low quality and were un-mastered, they sounded damn good. Yesterday, when I got home I had a package waiting for me, which had fully mastered high quality CDs of the same show.

Totally digging this service. I wish more bands did cool stuff like this. Now, I just have to go back in and get the other MA shows, as Pearl Jam pretty much played everything they know how to play between the 3 MA shows :)

Chills ...

Got CDs of the Pearl Jam show I went to a couple of weeks ago in the mail today. I've had completely legal and paid for MP3s for about a week, but the CD is actually mastered as opposed to the MP3s.

I am amazed that even after hearing it over and over again, I get chills up and down my spine hearing 19,000 people singing the "Don't Cry .." part of Baba O'Reilly. Just sounds damn amazing. So cool to hear that many people singing together, having the time of their lives.

Comfortable

I think I am a little too comfortable in my job at work.

Went to talk to a client today and our CEO was in on the meeting. Gave my normal presentation, didn't even think twice about the fact that the CEO of the company was sitting across from me observing everything I was doing.

Just amused me.

TZ

Someone needs to teach GG about timezones, she doesn't seem to understand them.

It's fun ...

calling A-listers @ 2am while intoxicated :)

(yes, one, maybe two people will understand this)

Monday is Done

Thank God.

Monday sucked. Let's go through the highlights:

a) Got nothing done at work
b) Got bitched at by a co-worker
c) Snapped back rather nastily at him
d) Sprained? my pinky while parking my car (don't ask)
e) Spilled soda all over my table and rug
f) Missed a call from my Uncle and found out that he is going away tomorrow, so won't get to talk to him soon
g) Service Engine Soon light came on in my car (though hopefully I have fixed that)
h) Forgot my breakfast this morning
i) Figured out where my finances stood, wept
j) Fought with my e-mail client all day. I think it crashed 7 times over the course of the day.

What a WONDERFUL way to start the week. Off to read some more HP5.

Watcha Gonna Do?

when they come for you?

Bad Boys ][ comes out on Friday! I totally forgot it was out this week until I just saw a commercial that said starts Friday. This may be something to do this weekend, as I am trying to (once again) avoid going to the bars.

I love the first movie, seen it a TON of times, own it on DVD, etc, so this is one movie I have waited for for many moons. Been following the progress of this on Upcoming Movies for a long time and was psyched to hear that it was really happening and now it is here. Yay!

Money Money Money

Can I tell you how freakin happy I am that it is pay day in 15 minutes?

Can I tell you how unhappy I am that I went through and figured out all my bills and all that money is virtually gone already?

Ugh, the ups and downs of the green stuff (well, one of the green things) everyone loves.

Why I love Letterman ....

President Bush isn't only unhappy that incorrect information got in to his State of the Union, but he's also annoyed because it took him days to learn how to pronounce Uranium.

Bahahahhaha. Gotta love Dave.

(not exactly what he said, but paraphrased :)

New Dave

Dave Matthews Gets Personal on 'Some Devil'

Dave Matthews says his recently completed solo debut, "Some Devil," includes some of his most introspective material to date, revealing a side that his fans have not yet seen.

Can't wait to hear this!

Help prevent ...

new hungry people. Watch this for more information.

Phishy Compliance

Jeffrey Zeldman mentions in Chopped Phish that www.phish.com has gotten an overhaul which is "made of valid XHTML 1.0, CSS2, and JavaScript. The underlying XHTML structure enables the site to work in web phones, text browsers, and other non-traditional devices.". That is awesome. Good to see the people who run a cool band's web site doing it right.

I checked out the site quickly, but so far it looks real nice. Hopefully will find some time this evening to dig in to it some.

DVD Reloaded

Yahoo! News - 'Reloaded' Video Arrives with 3rd 'Matrix'

"Reloaded," starring Keanu Reeves (news), Laurence Fishburne (news) and Carrie-Anne Moss (news), is slated for release Oct. 14 on DVD and VHS at a retail price of about $22, Warners executives said.

This will be nice. Though the article says that many franchies don't do this, I think this is the best idea ever. Get people to buy the DVD, get caught up on the movie again. Remember everything that happened, etc.

RTFM ....

For once, reading the manual actually worked!

This morning while driving in, the Service Engine Soon light came on in my car. I freaked slightly, but finished my drive and pulled out the manual. After freaking me out for a few paragraphs, it said something along the lines of, if you have re-fueled lately, make sure the gas cap is on tight because this could cause the light to come on. Well, since I live in a neighborhood of a lot of, well, lets just call them hoodlums, I figured maybe someone had screwed with my cap. Low and behold, I walk around the car and it is loose. Whether it was hoodlums or me rushing at the tank last week, I don't know, but I screwed the cap back on tightly, so hopefully the problem is now fixed. Whew!

The funny part is I noticed last week I seemed to be using much more gas than I normally do. I bet it was because the damn cap wasn't on tight. Doh!

The devil known as TV

I am way too addicted to TV. I have noticed it more and more now that I have hundreds of channels. I can always find something to watch. Sadly, half the time, it is the same movie I watched the day before and a few days ago. I really need to break this habit.

I've started to notice some patterns now. Watching TV starts out all innocent. I decide to watch the Sox game or turn it on while eating dinner. Whatever the original purpose is, it ends, the game ends, dinner ends, etc, but the TV stays. It says find something else to keep me on. I end up flipping through the movie channels most likely, as its the summer and no new (well, at least no new GOOD) shows are on. I find a few movies that pique my interest. The list is usually something like this: one movie I want to see, but it started 30 mins beforehand, one movie that is pretty new to cable, so I watched it the day before, but I could watch again, one old movie, which is really a bad movie, but at least will keep me occuppied for a bit. I pick one of the second two usually. Start watching. The movie ends and the cycle repeats. Cycle doesn't even always wait until the movie ends, I just start flipping sometimes because I am bored with what I am seeing.

I think getting a TiVo would really help me in this. First off, I would not have to worry about missing the shows I really do like. Tonight, I almost totally flaked on The Dead Zone just because I wasn't remembering it was Sunday. If I had the TiVo, it would have just recorded it and would not have had to think. If I had a TiVo, I would only have to watch TV when I wanted to watch the Sox. Hell, I could even TiVo the damn Sox and watch them later on :)

This rambling does have a point, somewhere, at least in my head. I really need to cut the damn TV out of my life. Whether it be through TiVo and spending time just watching what I like and not flipping as damn much and watching the same junk over and over again or just by finding other ways to stimulate me.

The worst part about this is that I am a music junkie, so it would make MUCH more sense for me to have the stereo blasting while sitting on the couch hacking away on the computer than to have the blasted TV on. I need to work on this bug time.

Yet another new leaf to turn over, I guess .....

This is ...

post 500. Scary, 200 all year last year, 300 already this year and its just over halfway done. Guess I am starting to like this weblog stuff.

Nicknames ...

The funny part about going by a nickname is that slowly your real name becomes secondary. I noticed this very obviously recently when I was playing on Google and could easily find my web page by searching for Skadz, but it didn't come up at all by searching on Ryan Skadberg. Just a lot of posts to various mailing lists over the years came up. So, as you will now notice, I have my real name in the banner. I figure if anyone from high school or college or something is looking for me, they will have a much easier time finding me by my real name rather than my nickname (even if most people who have known me since HS do know me by Skadz). Just a random thought late on a Sunday night.

Annoying Web Ads

I just got a freakin ad on Yahoo! that actually contained JAVA. I mean, its bad enough that some ads have flash in them, but JAVA? I mean, what about cross-browser compatability? People should just have ads that will work in the lowest common denominator, which means a browser and JUST a browser, no plugins.

I have too many times seen my browser eating tons of memory in the morning because I left it open on my.yahoo.com with a flash ad open. Obviously, flash has some meory leaks and anyone who has run anything Java, knows that Java seems to have them all over the place. (Yes, and most browsers are full of them as well). This is just a plain bad idea.

I mean, I guess the normal user doesn't leave the computer on all the time, with a browser open all the time, but I think with broadband becoming more and more prominent (MANY of my less technical friends now have things like DSL or a cablemodem, hell, even my Mom has one!), people are going to be more likely to just leave their machine on and in the same state as when they last were working on the machine. Wow, that was one run-on sentence. But, I think you see my point. Leaving the browser open with some flash or java application open could easily kill off a machine or make it completely unusable. Then, the user reboots, and "clears" the problem. But, rebooting a running machine is NEVER a good idea (though seemingly the best cure for Windows most of the time), so therefore, this could even cause users to mess up their machines more than they are already doing today.

OK, maybe I am going a bit too far, but considering web advertising is rather un-effective, (affective?), making them flashier is more likely to turn someone off (longer download time, more annoyance distracting them away from the real content of the page, etc) than make some more likely to click on them.

I guess, that's why I like services like MarketBanker or Google AdSense. They are text based ads, easily downloadable, don't interfere with the user's experience (much), etc.

OK, enough ranting about web ads for this evening.

They're Back ...

Harry Potty
CNN.com - Garbage Pail Kids set to return - Jul. 12, 2003:

"After being off the market for 15 years, a new series of the hugely successful stickers that entertained children in the mid-1980s with depictions of bodily functions will be released in August by The Topps Co."

Sweet! Now, I need to remember next time I am home to go looking for all my old ones. If these things hit again, I bet their would be a market for them again, which means some Ebay love would be in order.

I am just hoping that they didn't get destroyed in the flood that occurred in the closet in my old room at home.

Actually, I really should clean that whole closet out some time. There are TONS of baseball cards in there, which I probably could make a ton of money on. That would be a nice way to make up some of the cash I am down these days.

I was a fanatic when it came to baseball cards, spending all my money on them for a while. I have all sorts of un-opened packs of cards from the 80s and early 90s. I also have all kinds of better cards put away nicely in binders.

Now, where I might be able to fit all this stuff is a whole other issue.

More Changes ...

I did a bunch of updates today. Slowly trying to finish getting the site to where I want.

What I did:

Moved the blog to the top level page. The /junt will still work, but just going to www.skadz.com will now work (and should be used by default.

Cleaned up all the pages that used to be part of the top level page to have the new look. Well, except for the picture gallery. Still need to look over the CSS and HTML for that.

Cleaned up the web site directory. Still need to look through a bunch of this stuff, but I think I got all the junk out.

Set up a Wiki to play with and got it set up in the style of the blog.

Still need to do:
Re-link in all the top level pages to the blog.
Clean up HTML and CSS for the picture gallery
Add Side Bars to all the local pages
Add Navigation Bars to all of the pages
Probably a bunch more stuff

Slowly the page is coming together in the new look and feel and with all the features I was hoping to have.

Lung Brush ...

Anyone remember this from SNL? I need one of those right now. Between smoking and being stuffed up from being sick, my lungs feel like crap, it would be nice to be able to clean them out right about now.

Train Kept A Rollin'

Finished The Cluetrain Manifesto last night. This was a very interesting read. In the end, I definitely agree with a lot of what the authors are saying. The nice thing is that some of the stuff they discuss is already going on in my company.

My goal now is to try and take some of the ideas that we are not implementing (or at least implementing well) and get people to start thinking about them and trying to put them in to use. I think a lot can be learned and gained from doing some of the things discussed in the book.

It was funny trying to read this book because it kept making me think. And when thinking I got distracted and started not really reading some of the pages of the book and had to re-read some sections. I guess in some respects this is really a sign of a good book.

Though I am definitely a hard core geek at heart I have more and more been getting in to some of the business end of work again. I couldn't really do it at my last company (though I did it a lot at the company before) and now figure I should push some of my skills as far as I can and try to learn as much as possible. Also, I might as well make my voice heard because otherwise I could watch something happen that I think is bad and it could make me not happy to be at work anymore and I definitely don't want that.

Though the book told me to burn and bury it at the end, I do think I am going to suggest it to some co-workers and maybe even some management types. I think it has a lot of ideas that at least will make people think, as it did for me. Even if people disagree with the ideas at least they can see an alternate point of view and maybe can learn something from that.

The book has also inspired me to try and wirte down a number of the thoughts I have had about both collaborative projects internally, as well as knowledge management ideas. I think there are a number of things we should be doing both internally and externally using blogs and wikis and whatnot to really enhance the company.

Overall, awesome book, really glad I read it. Now on to HP5 (which I am actually already 120 pages in to).

Two out of Three

Well, this weekend is going to be filled with two of the three things in the title of the page. First off, I need to finish The Cluetrain Manifesto, I have about 30 pages left to go. Then, I plan on attempting to read and finish Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. So, lots of reading this weekend.

Also, have three movies to watch at some point, Bound, Phish - Live in Vegas, and Road to Perdition.

Also, I want to try out OpenGroupWare. I also want to do some playing with wikis this weekend. Have a bunch of thoughts of places to use them, but want to learn more about them. Also, I may finish up re-doing this site to match the look of the blog. I think I am also going to make the blog the top level page. Some other geekiness will probably occur as well.

Lastly, I definitely plan on jamming out some tunes. I hope to accomplish learning about 5 more songs this weekend. Also, I want to finish learning a few of the songs that I sorta half know right now.

The missing element to the weekend is my beloved Guinness. Been having a bit too much of it lately. Gonna save some money and try and just relax at home this weekend and not go out partying.

Should be a nice weekend if I can get all of this done.

An Ask Yahoo that matters ...

How did alcoholic drinks get the name cocktails?

Many different versions of how it came to be, too bad they couldn't find one that is authoritative. Over the past year or so, I have started saying let's go out for cocktails myself. I think my Mom got be started. I guess its a little more grown up then, "Let's go get wasted", though that is usually what occurs when we got out for cocktails ;)

Matrix Ping Pong

Scoble's right, this is some funny stuff.

Why Men Should Not Take Messages ...

Just got this in email.

Why Men Should Not Take Messages

I went to the Fleet Boston Pavilion last night to see what could have been th ebest concert line up I have ever seen. I was psyched for the show and knew I had good seats, so it was fixin to be a good time.

Fates Warning started right at 8 (after a false alarm from Bogie that they were on before 7). They played a very quick set, but they sounded real good from the back. The highlight was them playing OSI's Shutdown with Mike Portnoy assisting on drums.

Quuensryche came out about 20 mins after they finished and ripped it up. After an EXTREMELY disappointing show last time I saw QR, I was not expecting all that much. QR did an excellent job of proving me wrong. They played songs from all over their catalog. Highlights were the O:M set of songs which they played right in a row ( I Remember Now, Anarchy X, Revolution Calling, Speak, Eyes Of A Stranger > Anarchy X-tra) and the Best I Can closer was just EXCELLENT. That is one of my favorite QR tunes and they pulled it off flawlessly).

So, two sets in, I had already seen a pretty damn good show, and the band I came to see was still to come on. Dream Theater came on and started out RATHER disappointing playing Pull Me Under. Sure, I like this song, but after hearing it at almost every DT show I have been to (which is like 30 or so), I am sick of it, I don't want to hear it any more. After that, they played a good variety of stuff off all their albums (set list below). They did miss WDADU (and I was hoping for maybe a Your Majesty, since the French folks were in the house), but otherwise a pretty good selection. I would also like to see Hollow Years replaced, just not a big fan of that song either. So, basically, play Raise the Knife instead of PMU and Speak to Me instead of Hollow Years and it really would have been a kick ass set. The band did sound good though, real tight. The best part of their set, was due to time constraints, they sped up Met Pt 1 by like 50% and FLEW through it. It almost sounded like it was ready for radio. They really showed off how good they really are when they can take a complex song and play it EVEN faster than they normally do. They slowed it back down for the verses, but the last section of singing, James got in sync and flew right through it with them. It was just sick.

After DT finished, BOTH DT and QR hit the stage TOGETHER and played The Who's Won't Get Fooled Again. This sounded SWEET. James and Geoff trading verses, all three guitar players and Jordan each getting a nice solo. Just a great way to finish off a show.

I did have after show passes (don't I always? ;) but was not feeling great and all I would have been saying is hi and how are you to the guys, so I bailed. Headed straight home (now that is a miracle) and went to bed.

All in all, a great evening, filled with great music. Got to see a buddy of mine who was involved in the Providence club fire a few months back and was happy to see him doing well. Saw a number of other folks I haven't seen in a while as well. So, fun fun. Glad I wasn't too sick to go.

Dream Theater's Set List:
Pull Me Under
Under a Glass Moon
The Great Debate
Home
Hollow Years
A Mind Beside Itself (Erotomania, Voices, The Silent Man)
Metropolis Pt 1 ("Radio Edit")

Won't Get Fooled Again (w/ Queensryche)

Is it a crime ...

to kill a cat? Mine may not make it through the evening after she just nicely came very close (and the issue is still up for debate) broke my ONE fan and its 80+ outside and 90+ in here. Oh, and don't forget, in the attempt to fix the freakin fan, I now have krazy glue all over my freakin fingers and burnt one of my fingers. If this fan comes apart again, the cat is the broken blade up her ass. ARGH.

Sox Blog

Boston.com / Sports / Boston Sports Blog

Hmmm, this looks interesting. Too bad, without RSS, I ain't reading it. Sorry, I don't read blogs without my aggregator. Yes, I am a snob, deal :)

New Look ...

So, whadda ya think?

TV Ratings ...

Bahahhaha, Stripperella just came on and at the beginning, they go. This show is ratied CFFA, Cartoons for Fuckin Adults. :) I laughed.

Yeah yeah ...

I'm working on the new look to the site. Ignore any falling objects.

Get out and vote!

MLB.com - 2003 etopps All-Star Final Vote

Don't forget to get out and vote for Jason Varitek as the final man on the AL All Star Team. I mean, if we don't get Pedro, we should at least get Jason on :)

Weekend Wrapup ...

So, I guess the weekend is over. It'll officially be Monday in about 20 mins :)

Had a good weekend. Wednesday (yes, the weekend started on Wednesday), I went out for Bogie's birthday. I knew no one but he going in, so I was rather nervous going out. I definitely had fight or flight instincts on high. In the end it was a good time. Went to two places not in my normal bar scene (though a buddy manages one of them ;) Was nice. Met a number of cool people. Hopefully hang out with them some more some time soon.

Thursday I went to Pearl Jam as I already mentioned.

Friday, I lounged around most of the day and slept too much. At night, I met up with a friend who was in town and headed to the bar. It was actually pretty crowded which I was suprised about for the fourth.

Saturday, went to the bar early and then headed to see the boys at the Harp. Got too drunk, but nothing stupid. It was an alright night, good to see some people I haven't seen in a bit.

Today, I've been feeling crappy all day. I was supposed to go gig with my friend, but that didn't work. This is just not working out well for me.

All in all, I am very much in a rut lately. Seems like I am doing the same old shit with the same old people. Wednesday was nice because it was something different, but other than that, it was just another weekend. I definitely need to work on that. I have DT this week and I think I am going to lay low otherwise. Definitely need to start finding other things to do. Actually gotta start doing more at home and not going out. Start saving some money and doing other house type stuff. The guitar playing has been nice. I need to keep up on that. I should probably start doing the PS2 thing again. At least it is something besides drinking. I also have to learn to step away from the TV. Spending much too much time in front of it.

OK, enough ranting from me.

SARS contained?

SARS contained across the globe / But World Health Organization warns new outbreaks may occur

Hmmm, how is that possible when I think I caught it in Boston last night? Yeah, I know, prolly just a cold, but still, I usually blame the latest disease for my sickness. I had ebola like a dozen times :)

Plug Plug Plug ...

Retrohacker.com - Nostalgia for the geek of yesteryear!

Just had to plug my buiddy's new site :)

Pearl Jam Live!

I went to see Pearl Jam at the Tweeter Center last night. We got down to the parking lot good and early even with a ton of traffic getting down there. The first problem of the night, it was raining when we got there. It was initially just a drizzle, but got pretty heavy after a bit. After about an hour of sitting in the car, the rain finally let up enough to spend some time outside. I met up with a number of friends and we hung out, had some beers, cooked some food, etc. Around 8, we headed in to the show. We wandered around place for a bit, grabbed some waters, and hit our seats. We had seats in the new not covered seats at the venue. I had never sat in these seats before, and they weren't all that bad. We kept hoping that the rain would not return. Around 8:45, the band hit the stage. They came out strong and kept it going throughout the show. The set went about 75 minutes. Lots of radio friendly songs and a number of other tracks. Patriot was done differently than I had seen it in the past and it was a very cool version. After about a 10 minute break, the band came back out and did an encore. From Crazy Mary with an AWESOME jam into Alive with the whole crowd the place was electric. The band left the stage one more time and returned to the stage and had the house lights put on. They came out and did Baba O'Reilly which was just incredible. The whole crowd was singing along. Then, they finished off with Yellow Ledbetter. All in all, an amazing show. Eddie was RATHER drunk, but still was totally on. My favorite comment of Eddie's "live life for the moment, but go to sleep". It seems he had been partying straight through from the night before. During Alive, Eddie said something along the lines of "You guys sing, you sound better than me anyways". Fun Fun :)

The set list in full:

First Set: Release, Animal, Gods' Dice, Do The Evolution, Insignificance, Love Boat Captain, I Got Shit, Low Light, Rival, Lukin, Not For You, Daughter, You Are, In Hiding, I Am A Patriot, Once, Rearviewmirror;
1st encore: Driven To Tears, Corduroy, Soldier Of Love, Crazy Mary, Alive;
2nd encore: Baba O'Riley, Yellow Ledbetter

The after show parking lot situation sucked as always. Got home around 1ish or so.

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