Absolut Christmas iMix
Fucking spam was put in the fucking comments and by killing it, fucking movable type had somehow killed my fucking post.
fuck spam.
National Treasure
Thanks to Dan Brown and the movie National Treasure, there is this fascination of late with the legends of the secret societies such as the Free Masons, the Illuminati, the Knights Templar who later became the Priory of Sion.
There is some really neat information to be learned in this entire plethora of legends. Did you know a monk in the Catholic Church (with approval to use science to support Christianity) first postulated the Big bang theory that later led to the creation of the illuminati?
Some of it is just far reaching though. Dan Brown explains in his book Angels & Demons (still a great read) that on the great seal of the United States found on the back of the one dollar bill, that the Latin phrase "Novus Ordo Seclorum" means "New Secular Order". Another popular mistaken translation is "New World Order". A little Google search and you will find that "Novus Ordo Seclorum" actually means something along the lines of A new order of the ages. Notice the big difference in those meanings?
Or so the man would have you believe...
Some other translations on the currency and US Symbol:
Annuit Coeptis : Providence (or God) Has Favored Our Undertakings.
E Pluribus Unum : Out of Many, One
The unfinished pyramid with the all seeing eye has been confused with a Masonic symbol in the movie as well. The symbol was the creation of Charles Thompson (not a Mason) in 1782 for the U.S. great seal. Contributing to the design was Pierre Du Simitière, Francis Hopkinson, and William Barton (none were Masons). President Franklin D. Roosevelt (Mason) included the pyramid side of the seal on the one dollar bill in 1935.
National Treasure was a fun ride of a movie without any expectations. Apperently there is a large fortune right up the street from the apartment here in Manhattan.
In the "Just Clued In" Dept.
Imagine a world where David Arquette out bills Ben Affleck and Paul Reubens (Pee Wee Herman) is a vicious terrifying vampire trying to kill Luke Perry who has been going to high school for most of his professional career.
In the 1992 movie Buffy the Vampire Slayer that inspired the television cult series of the same name, Ben Affleck has a very minor appearance as basketball player #10 towards the end fight scene.
Buffy was right there with a wooden stake and could have done something.
(shank)
Ben: (Auugh!) "Crap lady, I'm not a vampire..."
Buffy: "I know, but in nine years you would have made the movie Pearl Harbor."
Thank You
I am thankful for the opportunities given to me.
I am thankful for the friends I have, old and new.
I am thankful for good memories that get me through the bad ones.
I am thankful for the kindness of strangers.
I am thankful for the people I love.
I am thankful for being loved.
I am thankful for my health.
I am thankful for having the ability to walk off the fact that U2 gave a concert in NYC and no one told me about it so I could attend.
I am thankful for my ability to endure.
I am thankful for my son who gives my existence meaning.
I am thankful that you came to read this.
I am thankful for a bed that feels much better than an air mattress.
I am thankful I have never had to fight in war.
I am thankful for rational people.
I am thankful for the experiences that enriched my life.
Happy Thanksgiving.
The Weekend
So I cooked this weekend with food that came from Freshdirect.com and the garlic was a mutant breed that is about 3 times the size of any garlic I had seen before. Garlic, it turns out, has a very weird effect on me.
This Thursday is Thanksgiving in America and a nice family from Long Island has extended the invitation to eat with them.
I refuse to recognize Christmas is coming until Thanksgiving is at least over. This has gotten ridiculous with the marketing so early.
I met some of the neighbors here finally including the guy with the dog. Turns out he's a nice guy and the dog is cute. Bah, I was so wanting him to be an ass to justify the loathing I had for the dog. Now I have to be "understanding" and stuff.
The Australian television has been given away to a media firm here in Manhattan that makes some really interesting documentaries. Glad to see it's going to some good use. Yay for Craiglist.
I need a haircut.
Fun Show, Expensive Drinks
Went out last night to go see an off-Broadway play called The Marijuana-Logues. It was a comedy that was all about pot. Much of it amusing but Arj Barker had me laughing quite a bit during his skits. One in particular about mixing pot in butter and calling it “I can’t believe its pot butter”. Ed, who works for the theatre and comp’d us all to get in, was met for the first time in person, as well as Damien and his girlfriend from mrbarrett.com. Ray was there too, he got a new tat this past weekend. We went out to eat and drink afterwards and got some of the most expensive grub on a slow train from the kitchen at a nearby restaurant in the West Village. It was a nice evening out.
Audion, The Legacy
Before iTunes came around there was SoundJam (which later became iTunes) and Audion. I was a big fan of Audion because I like Panic Software and I loved their interface and attention to detail. I finally gave in and converted over to iTunes when they were clearly (to me) running the gamut.
Panic is now retiring their software and they have a neat article of the legacy of their Audiable child. It's interesting in a way that reading it, you get a good sense of being a small independent business who gets phone calls they never expected. Great read. So Long Audiable.
Apology Conformity Revisited
Crap. I accidentally deleted this post. Will put back up when I find it again. It was chock full of goodie pointness.
Nigerian Ministry of Spam
Today, in one of the many emails I have been specially selected to recieve because I am unique and special, I was informed that the Nigerian government is still in the process of collapsing. However, they are still holding strong long enough for the secretary to the Finance Minister to try and give me a last minute cut of $25million dollars they need to get out of the country and fast!
I just want to say, with the complete confidence that I will indeed be getting paid my cut of $25 million dollars, that my new found wealth is going to be my ticket out of this hell hole and I'll buy new friends better than all of you.
So long, chumps! HAhhahaha
Yep, any day now...
DVR vs. TiVo
Dear Time Warner DVR Recorder,
You suck more than words can fully express. You can't get scheduled recordings right, you freeze constantly when recording two shows at once, your interface sucks and you aren't even intuitive like TiVo. You record everything twice even if the descriptions are the same and when I try to correct this, you record nothing. I am a 33-year-old male who is surrounded by technology and if I have issues with this, what the hell hope is there for mom and pop everybody out there who can't stop the VCR from blinking 12:00?
In reiteration, you suck. As soon as I get my TiVo here in NYC, I plan on just setting you in front of it before hauled away so you can cower in the shame of what you should have been.
Sincerely,
Beau, Customer.
Flickr
flickr is a great way to share photos. You can find relating photos with tags and leave comments embeded in the photo as well as recieve feedback on your ow pictures. You can also create social networks with friends to keep track of their photos. Great stuff. You can use tags to group together photos such as NewYork, Australia, or Most Viewed.
Guilty!
I was actually worried this was going to go all OJ, but the jury found Scott Peterson guilty today of Murder One for wife and Murder Two for unborn son. I guess it was as good as a defense as he was capable of getting with the amount of evidence against him but at least even with Mark Geragos as the defense strategist, some jury's can still retain logic.
Yay for Justice.
Oakley Thump
This will probably be much better in the future generations, but the Oakley Thump is pretty neat as far as merging technology with portable wear.
Geeks Apologize in Mass Conformity
So after the election, a bunch of uber nerds all called each other and decided something must be done to show their disdain, it was then that the plan was born. They all agreed they would get out their nerd cameras, make their nerd signs that say something along the lines of "Dear world, we're sorry." They gallantly held up their signs and took their nerd pictures with their carefully posed looks of nerd sympathy that resembles the same look of being told their grandmother was a meth dealer.
Apparently they got the memo confused on to agree on the percentage of the U.S. did not vote for Bush.
Update: Just for the record, I did not vote for Bush. I just am not being an over dramatic appologist about it either.
Guy No. 3
Breakdown of a fight scene. There's always this scene on cop / action / sci-fi programs where guy A is surrounded by four or five guys ready to do harm. What the group does not know is that guy A being cornered is a badass / superhero / vampire with a soul. Smart remarks are thrown out then Guy B1 runs in, smack, goes down. Guy B2 is already halfway there and smack, he goes down as well. Guy B3 has time to process the badassness of Guy A and always, always, runs in there anyway.
smack.
The Comments are gone Man
Comments have been turned off on all past entries. I am getting too much spam on older posts through the comments form. I mean did anyone who read my review of "Signs" several years ago really need to be informed of viagra and low, low mortgage rates?
I may leave comments off for most posts from now on. Not much point to them really and seems to leave a hole for spammers to exploit but can turn them on for specific posts I want feedback from.
Delicious Library
How friggin' cool is Delicious Library? You can add your existing media to it simply by holding the bar code up to your isight camera, it finds the item using Amazon.com database online and then you can keep track of them if you loan them out, track current resale value, Auction item on eBay, etc. You can keep track of your Books, Movies, Games and more.
Moment of Zen
This is not my cat, but I approve this message. Hehehe.
Lots of people die from exposure.
One day I was walking near this tall building in Manhattan and I got lost. It was cold outside and I started to panic for a moment as the night set in. I lost my head and forgot things, things like all my traveling abroad experience, my military training, my, uhm, general basic motor skills with a sense of survival, and looked for something to eat but there were only empty trash bins. I rummaged for a while and as panic turned into full-out hysteria, I knew I was going to die soon and never be able to talk to loved ones again. Well, except I had a cell phone, but that's not going to help anything except call anyone I need to, is it? The sky started spinning and I felt my blood slowing, slowing to the point of stillness. I felt the end near. I was making peace with it, I mean I had a good run with the life thing and who wants to grow old anyway? Heck, sometimes people are amazed I have lasted this long. I exhaled my final breath, fell backwards into the street and watched the sky close in on me as I waited for my impending death. Doom, was at hand.
Then I got up, went into one of the billion Starbucks in Manhattan, had a hot Mocha Coffee with cream. Got me home.
------
"You need to get a jacket, lots of People die from Exposure."
- the sister (who has a good heart, isn't she precious?)
The Incredibles
Brad Bird wrote and directed the movie Iron Giant a few years ago, it was well made, well written, well everything despite the last minute budget cuts and the plug practically being pulled out from him before it was finished as well as a non existent marketing campaign. Now Brad Bird, together with Pixar, has made The Incredibles and it was an equally great movie. All of the characters were well done and the story wasn't just a rehashed plot, it was fun to watch. Go see it. It's worth the $85 in tickets, popcorn and a ten-gallon coke.
Final Weekend Without Stuff!
On Saturday, meeting some friends and going to a NY Nicks vs. Celtics Basketball game at Madison Square Gardens and on monday... the stuff will be delivered finally from Australia! Woohoo!
stuff is cool.
How George Bush won the Election
I wrote and rewrote something like this last night at least three times and kept trying to make the same points. Kottke made the point for me as well as a few others.
Kerry voters, we need to get over ourselves...we're not special. We're not informed by some superior intelligence that gives us a unique insight into how the world should work. We buy into the Democratic Party/liberal/anti-conservative/fear the church crap in the same way that our "red state" brethren buy into the Rebublican Party/conservative/anti-liberal/fear the gays bullshit.
Also, another well written essay from Greg Knauss posted at waxy.org. (I really miss him writing his own blog.)
This determined emotionalism — which is another way of saying anti-rationalism — is what drives us today. You can find it distasteful, you can find it depressing, but it's most important impact is that we have turned over the direction of the country — our future — to the part of our psyche that doesn't want to think.
Amen.
Headlines and Gossip
Arafat is hanging on by a thread. (rumors he has AIDS)
Elizabeth Edwards diagnosed with cancer on day of husbands defeat.
Russian President Vladimir Putin happy to hear Bush was re elected.
The Wonkette Coverage
I have been reading Wonkette for some time now but I just saw Ana Marie Cox on television yesterday for the first time blogging the election. Two Words; Haw-tey! Thanks Wonkette for the coverage last night. It was the most anticipated of all the news sources.
Ohio, The New Florida; Bush Looks to Win.
I have been telling everyone my gut feeling over the last few weeks that I thought Bush was going to win by the slightest margin. It was the same feeling I had for several months but hope renewed after the first debate. A gut feeling really, but I just didn't think Kerry was going to pull it off.
Ohio has been called by most of the major news sources (starting with Fox, go figure) as Bush the winner. Kerry released a statement a few moments ago announcing they were not going to concede to defeat in Ohio. The recount begins. Good for Kerry, but I see little coming from it.
Kerry pulled off the debates hands down as the clear winner where Bush almost seemed to stumble along. We elected the guy who stumbled along. Good Job Karl Rove.
Instant Message from earlier today:.
Paula: we have failed as parents.
me: ?
Paula: our son voted for George W. Bush at school today.
me: wow, did he say why?
Paula: because "he really likes him" and can't narrow it down any more than that
me: I blame you.
Paula: i understand.
The Election at Midnight
As of midnight EST, I am showing Kerry at 188 Electoral Votes and Bush at 237 Votes. If they both win their projected states (and none of the states have turned yet) This will bring the total to Kerry 266, Bush 271. One vote over the 270 required to win. It all depends on Ohio right now.
If Kerry wins in Ohio, (still at 70%) then the Electoral vote will go Bush 251 / Kerry 286. Right now Bush is ahead in Ohio by a small lead. You could probably crack a diamond with the ass tension in both party headquarters right now.
If something weird happens and neither make the 270 votes, then it gets even more fun.
If no candidate receives a majority of electoral votes, the House of Representatives elects the President from the 3 Presidential candidates who received the most electoral votes. Each State delegation has one vote. The Senate would elect the Vice President from the 2 Vice Presidential candidates with the most electoral votes. Each Senator would cast one vote for Vice President. If the House of Representatives fails to elect a President by Inauguration Day, the Vice-President Elect serves as acting President until the deadlock is resolved in the House.
That's right kids, in theory we could have a separately elected President and Vice President from either party. Well, It's possible but seeing how we have a Republican controlled house and Senate, Bush and Cheney would reign supreme.
The stats were out on voter turn out. Not sure on accuracy but;
17 - 29 @ 17% (same as 2000)
30 - 39 @ 28% (down from 32% in 2000)
The only group to rise in voter turnout was the 60+ age group.
Judgment Day
It's not that complicated; invite a few friends over, preferably from different political affiliations, and have a discussion about what would be a near flawless and clear counting voting machine. Easy and/or accurate recount, on staff workers who can quickly fix technical problems, voter number id stamped and issued on a receipt as voted and given to the voter as well as recorded internally, electronically and on paper thus giving a triad of verification. We put all of this kind of thought into guarding our nuclear defense strategy and yet the process to elect the man in charge of it all has the complexity of a tin can telephone in some states.
( continue reading over at Watchblog.com )
Are You Ready to Rumble?
Election day is only one day away and all the news programs are buzzing around like kids on Christmas. No matter who wins, it's going to be a very big news day.
In the left corner we have the challenger John "I have a plan" Kerry. On the right we have the contender, George W. "They're comin ta git ya" Bush.
Today the spin is sure to be in overdrive so I am going to turn off the news until tomorrow evening when it's close to determining who will be prematurely announced as the winner and who will file the lawsuits and the recount.
If I were a radical protest group, or Jimmie Carter, I would find a way to get Fox News Yanked off the air for the next day and a half.
Who wants to take bets on if we can do this any better four years later?
