Deja Vu All Over Again... Again...

I had a feeling that my old desktop was going to quit on me a couple of weeks ago. like a genius, I backed up a bunch of things onto my external hard drive, not everything, but a good amount; so when the thing finally went belly up, the loss was somewhat softened with the knowledge that most of my months' worth of music and video files were safe and sound along with other "important" stuff.

Well, my friends, I tried to connect the external hard drive to this here laptop yesterday morning, and the thing wouldn't even turn on. No power this morning either.

...

In the span of 2 weeks, the following things have broken:
my iPod (which I have since fixed)
my desktop computer
my acoustic guitar
my external hard drive, which held the fruits of years of scouring the internets for obscure music, etc.

Happy Holidays!

The Flow Chart to Live By

Click this and all shall be revealed.

You are welcome.

Rereversing the Curse

Sorry, Red Sox Fans!



Nothing lasts forever.

The sudden penchant for winning games in the fall? Done.

Pennants? World Series wins? Over.

What happened to the hope and glory of Red Sox Nation? The dog ate it.

It's a sign, maaaaaaan!

Rereverse the curse!

Me Again...

A Beatles cover band doing "Stairway to Heaven" as Ed Sullivan era Beatles.

This has been everywhere, but whatever...

I Wish I Had Access To Jen's Computer at Her New Job.

This would confuse the bejeebus out of her.

Paul, I might need to ask a favor of you next time you swing by there for a meeting.

What Can't I Fix?

Yeah. I'm pretty much a technical wizard.

I upgraded my laptop's RAM from an embarrassing quarter GB to 1 (whole) GB last night.

This thing is as fast as Jen after a handle of Mad Dog 20/20.

Keeping in step with my "when one thing is fixed, another must disintegrate" karma, my wireless internet at home decided to crap the bed this morning.

Still can't win.

bright red, crimson assholes!

fuck russia, man. fuck them in their russian asses.

(what's that? you guys wanted to keep our blog "classy"? well ... ally crushed that when she decided to blog about CROCS.)

how DARE russia deliver nuclear fuel for an Iranian power plant that is at the center of an international dispute over Iran’s nuclear program?

those red, commie bastards are clearly trying to, as one Richard Samson might say, "step on our collective dicks" on this one!

i sure hope Bush bounces back from this! i have NO doubts he'll handle it with class, poise, and class.

...

i'm drunk'ish. god bless america. and freedom.

and america. twice. and again.

rinse and repeat.

I CAN Fix It!

Just as the school year was getting underway, I dropped my ipod on its headphone jack. Since then, I've been getting sound out of only my left earbud. This was annoying. But hey, at least I can hear something, right?

Then the audio cut out entirely last week. The day after my desktop computer crashed and burned.

I've become reliant on my little hand-held friend. My daily commute is an hour each way. I love being able to watch an episode of "The Office", listen to "This American Life", or rock out to Quasi after a long day... I realize that this is pretty cliché, but it helps to distract me from the usually filthy subway car that I'm in and the public in general.

So I went to the Apple store to get the thing fixed. Naturally, the warranty had just expired. They couldn't help me out. They don't even fix these things, they just swap them for new ones. Doesn't that seem really wasteful? I think so, and I hate the planet Earth. Always have, always will. Sorry, Gore.

Anywho, I went online and found a place that sells replacement parts for these li'l suckers. I ordered a new headphone jack.

Two nights ago, I pried apart my tiny little friend. It was a scary moment. I didn't want to hurt the poor fella, y'know? I took this thing apart, piece by piece (The screws they use for these things are amazingly miniscule. The screwdriver for my eyeglasses repair kit was way too huge for them... small... incredibly small), replaced the part, hooked everything back up, and held my breath.

I hit the button in the middle of the clickwheel. It powered up! At the very least, I hadn't done any additional harm to this thing. The moment of truth came as I put both earbuds in their respective earholes and selected "Now Playing."

Ahhhhhh... I was greeted with Stevie Wonder's "Ebony Eyes," one of the greatest pop songs ever written by the way, and indeed the sound was flowing into both of my huge ears.

I fixed it.

(Of course moments later I realize that when I broke a string on my guitar earlier, the bridge on said guitar had also broken... I can't win. Ever.)

This guy is my hero.

He is a genius.

hey mami

this no internet thing is killing me.

i h8 it.

i only ever have time to access internets at work, and have massive guilt if i view anything that isn't related to journalism. i guess this technically is journalistic in nature, but until i have a blog at the PS, i shouldn't blog from work.

i'm bloggin' my brains out right now at mom's. online class in the bag, boyz.

also, in advance of xmas eve festivities i presume, there is a chocolate fountain on the table. aaahh...synchronicity...


the impending Nor'easter is making me hate not having 'nets at my place even more. to prepare for being snowed in tomorrow, i went to target today and bought winter boots and cleaning supplies. i'm go to scrub the crap out of my palacial abode. i also am goin to stop at saratoga guitar on my way home and attempt to restring my guitar. my low e broke a few months back, which has hampered my jammin'. i was getting good.
but anyway, yeah, i'm prepared to be bored to death, with no cable or internet. and my dvd player is highly unreliable, though i do have some sweet discs on loan from the liberry.

only one of them has a dragon in it. (not this one:)



keep your toesies nice 'n toasty, y'all.

Watch This 3 Times

whenever i'm down...

... i'll just come here and watch/listen to this:




the best, all around!

yeah!

Freaking Out, Man!

Next week, I start at my new store. I've been sorta excited about it, really. The store is a little over a year old and is said to be an eventual goldmine, what with the hundreds of upscale homes being built JUST across the street.

I assumed changing stores would be fairly easy. But leaving the Marion Ave shop where I have spent over a third of my life - what would have to be called my "comfort zone" - is starting to freak a brother (and YOUR brother) out a little bit. Especially since writing the next two weeks worth of schedules and seeing just how much I'll be working. Easily no days off in sight until well after New Years.

Happy Holidays, Paul!

Have I mentioned the added stress things brings to my holiday season? No? Let's!

I am broke. I know, I say it all the time. But shit is thick right now, peoples. I'm literally losing sleep over all of this; typing this post out on my cellphone at five AM when I should be getting as much rest as I can before my weeks of hell begin.

To say that I am doubting myself, my decision to "move", my financial situation, and the future of my mental state would be an understatement.

I thought that venting about what worries you is supposed to make you feel better about things. If that's the case ... why do I feel like a bigger loser?

...

That was a rhetorical question.

history lessons

good morning, class. hope you brought your trapper keepers and number two pencils.



not as good as their regular, live show ... but their "special event" series are usually very well produced and fun to listen to.

so ... yeah. there WILL be a quiz, afterwards! so, study up.

the History of Howard Stern

Deja Vu All Over Again

My computer crashed last night.

I can smell that something overheated.

Fried.

The thing has fried.

A moment of silence please.

...

...

...

...As you were...

so whack

dudes.

i deliver admin powers because i trust you.


don't usurp my power by changing the layout.

moving on to what i had intended to blog about...

what up with crocs? why do people still wear them? and why, allah, why do they wear them with socks? and in the winter, no less?

some chick that works at the gym i go to wears a pair of those tie-dyed-looking crocs, i think they might even be knock-off crocs which is an even more devastating crime, WITH SOCKS. WHILE SHE MOPS THE LOCKER ROOM!

W T F

anyway ...

just had some things to get off my chest.

Give a Hoot. Please Toot.

Our world will be saved through flatulence.

I always knew that this would be the case. Hell, I wrote a screenplay on this very subject when I was 7 years old. It was great. "Fart Wars." It needed a new title, but I'm telling you, it was quality, groundbreaking stuff.

I'm getting away from the point at hand, and I apologize.

Ass gas will save us all.

Scientists are hoping to give the bacteria responsible for "green toots" to cattle, cutting their methane emissions while cutting the cheese.

These are truly blessed times, my friends.

Hard-driven, Indeed.

yeah. so, my computer died yesterday morning. as of now, seven years of downloads are gone. out of my life. seven years of silly writing, picture collection ... not to mention the volumes upon volumes of porn i had amassed over the years. games i'd downloaded, pointless distractions.

gone.



oh yeah. and so is a few hundred dollars from my account for a NEW computer.

it's NICE. it's FAST. it's ... Windows Vista. meh. it's also EMPTY. every 3 seconds i'm reminded that some other "irreplacable" series of zero's and one's have been TAKEN from me!

it's also a colossal pain in my bleached asshole; resetting bookmarks, themes, downloading patches, fixes and updates all to make myself comfortable at my uncomfortable desk again.

so ... christmas has been cancelled, y'all. Ho Ho Ho-lla.

not buyin' it

can evangelicals NOT be creepy?

it's the question of the day for me. last night, two people for whom i have a lot of respect, talked to me for half an hour about a service from which they had just returned. it was at an evangelical church. i was told to go today (sunday).
"it wasn't creepy, ally"

yet, already i was being recruited.

i don't know. i could go on about this all day. i guess my biggest problem with evangelicism, aside from its followers, is that it teaches that the Bible is the absolute word of God.

one of the people who was talking to me about this service has said to me before that she knows that the bible isn't the word of God. now, i'm as hypocritical as the next broad, but C'MON!!


maybe i'll just follow my friend matt's lead and worship cthulu...

Oh No He Didn't!

Well... alright... He probably did.

Musical genius/irrepressible pedophile R. Kelly might be up to his old tricks again.

Remember that videotape of a Kells doppleganger defiling an underage girl? Seven years ago? The trial for charges stemming from that incident was pushed back indefinitely yet again last month. Supposedly it will get underway next spring (no pun intended).

Allegedly, Robert Sylvester Kelly slept with the daughter of his publicist. She wasn't underage. Before you go and pat the Mozart of the New Millennium on the back, the girl was 19 and he has known her since she was just 4 years old. Considering the guy's supposed history, that's just plain creepy.

Anyone who knows me knows that I love the guy's music. There is a certain absurdity that is hypnotizing when it is paired up with the funk the man lays down. Every time that I think the guy is in on the joke, that he's playing up the persona, the horny manchild musical savant, he does something like this that leads me to believe that he lacks the mental capacity to come up with such a brilliant plan, let alone execute it to such perfection. The timing of this allegation (if true... but really, what are the chances that this didn't happen?), with the trial looming seems so incredibly ridiculous. Setting aside the moral issues for a moment, this seems monumentally dumb on a self-preservation level.

I just wish the guy could get freaky-deeky without involving the youth of this great nation.

C'mon, Mr. Show-biz. I know you're the sexasaurus and everything, but you're making it really difficult to defend you.

The man can write some amazing music, though... Just ask him.

work is play

we had a party with a chocolate fountain at work the other day because the paper won some awards. it was totally sweet. it was in a heated tent outside and when i entered the tent, a song by The Church was playing. so hip.

but when i found out that there'd be a chocolate fountain, all i could think about was this article i read recently about obesity in america and how people are going under the knife, spending too much money to lose weight, when all they need to do is just eat right and exercise.



no, i wasn't worried that the chocolate would go straight to my hips. it reminded me of a paragraph in the article that said that people still tend to gain weight back a while after a gastric bypass by cheating and consuming massive amounts of calories in a way that won't explode their shrunken stomachs. a method mentioned was drinking chocolate syrup.

this naturally leads one to think of Step by Step, when Cody would put Hershey's syrup in his mouth, then a swig from the milk carton, then shake his head around REALLY fast.



so i was inspired at the party. i chewed up some strawberries, stuck a cup under the fountain, took a sip and shook my head. i felt my stomach staples pop.

UH OH!

'Tis the Season

Screw the holidays. (I dare you.)

I'm talking campaign season.

With the Presidential Election less than a year away, the candidates will be trying to distinguish themselves from each other (and in the case of the Republican candidates, even the guy most people associate with their party).

Collectively, the Democrats have devised a plan that could represent the future of national politics, or just as easily a capitalization on the YouTube faithful.

FlipperTV

The party's "trackers," people sent out to follow opponents and record them on the campaign trail, have made their video available to the public. FlipperTV encourages you (yeah... they're talking to you) to download the footage and edit it as you see fit.

Here is a write up from the NY Times.

My first thought is that this would be an easy way for the party to let some enthusiastic kid create an attack ad, possibly by misrepresenting a candidate or their statements, and do so with the excuse that they have no ties to the person who put the ad together, freeing them from any negative consequences. (All while reaping the benefits of the negative ad.)

Advertising can play with someone's memory of events. Jeepers, even a photoshopped picture can do that. This could potentially have a huge effect on the way a candidate is remembered. For instance, if I mentioned Howard Dean to you, odds are the first thing that would come to mind would be that bat$#!% crazy yelp that was looped for weeks straight on every cable news station. Remember that? Of course you do. How about his stance on health care? Not so much? Hmph... strange.

This could be all be a case of the Dems wanting blood for the way John Kerry was treated during the last go 'round. Call it "Swift Boat II: Electric Boogaloo." (Or revenge for the Dean Hollerfest... Dean is in a seat of power these days...)


What do you think?

marvel-ous

wild.

Marvel Digital Comics 'Library'

i haven't bought an overpriced comic book in close to seven years? maybe more? who knows. anyhow ... the other day THIS happened!

oops. i just tripped over my debit card.



















who put THAT there?

stealin' from myself

ok i was going to repost a recent blog i had blogged on my myspace blog, and i'm still going to. but i'm going to add to it because i just remembered something i saw on the news this morning.
yeah. i got rabbit ears. i watch tv now.



here's the myspace blog:

18 Nov 2007

stage fright Current mood: thirsty Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities today i was thinking about how a few years ago, maybe even many years ago, i was watching Oprah and that dumb broad was saying how if she's in a public restroom and using the handicap stall, if she hears someone enter the restroom she'll say "ARE YOU HANDICAPPED??" just in case. what a dummy. first of all, i doubt that's true. second of all, if the person is handicapped, what difference does it make if she knows it while she's going or after? she's still inconveniencing the person! thirdly, Oprah is stupid. fourth, if you're such a giving, compassionate humanitarian, Oprah, then why are you being so dishonest and selfish, using the roomy handicap stall? i use the handicap stall and if i hear someone come into the bathroom, i don't even care if they're in a wheelchair. i'll be done in a minute. they can wait. Currently reading : The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Vol. 1 By Alan Moore Release date: 01 October, 2002

now to add to this:
Oprah is endorsing Barak Obama in the primaries in 4 states.

i hate her and i hate the power she holds over people's opinions.

and i'll say this before jeff or paul does: yeah, i used to like her. and yeah, you've been right all along. but even when i used to like to eat oreos and watch Oprah after a long day of junior high, i don't think i would have let her sway my vote. and if he wins because of her, i guess i won't get that mad after all.
at least she isn't being a feminist and supporting hillary.

i think i like Ron Paul. he wants to go back to the gold standard and i think that would be very interesting if it happened.
it won't.

but the rock can't stop.

a wise negro man once said:

"There's no stopping what can't be stopped. No killing what can't be killed."
-- Scary Black Guy, from Predator 2

he was a scary black guy on predator 2. and i think he had a message.

discuss:

You Think That YOU'RE Full?!?

This holiday weekend, it is quite likely that you are still reeling from a wonderfully gluttonous, thoroughly patriotic, disgustingly tasty (if that makes any sense) stretch of overeating. I know that I am.

If it makes you feel better, know that your stomach could be filled not only with delicious fowl and yummy pie. It could be stuffed with a ten pound hairball.

Yum.

Yeah. That's how we're kicking this off.

That's what you get for leaving this up to me, Ally.

If you'll excuse me, I need a bowl of stuffing...

who let you in?

even though this was my idea, i'm nervous. i thought i had great bloggin' topics floating around my great bloggin' noggin, but the pressure is on.

i'm going to let my brothers begin. they're funnier than i. i'm just the smart, cute one.

they're smart, too. but not so cute.