Tag music (39)

Queen! (and me)
Mood: happy
Music: Queen - "Radio GaGa"
Posted on 2011-04-15 13:58:00
Tags: music
Words: 110

Jonathan and I went to the Queen Sing-along last night at the Alamo Drafthouse, hosted by The Action Pack. It was awesome! Watching Freddie Mercury singing Radio GaGa at Live Aid really demonstrated how great a live performer he was.

Also, his voice was amazing. And his range, ridiculous! I think my throat was more sore than after the Michael Jackson singalong, which is saying something. (wow, that was 6 years ago?? I feel old....)

More Queen videos:
Under Pressure live at Wembley
Queen did the theme song for Flash Gordon! That is something I did not know.

--

In unrelated news, I'm in an internet video! Presumably more to come...

5 comments

a few Monday links
Mood: okay
Posted on 2010-01-18 15:23:00
Tags: music links
Words: 129

According to The Advocate, Austin is the ninth-gayest city in the US. Atlanta is #1, which kinda surprised me.

OK Go has a new music video out, and it's pretty good. It includes the Notre Dame marching band playing with them, which I generally like (see Radiohead with the USC marching band). Of course, OK Go is no stranger to cool music videos - they did the neato treadmill one for their last album.

The original YouTube video is not embeddable, and a member of the band wrote a long post explaining why that's so. Basically, their label (EMI) gets paid a small amount for each YouTube view, but their tracker can't count embedded hits, but there's a bit of philosophy about how different the music business is these days.

0 comments

days go by and still I think of you
Mood: calm
Music: Dave Matthews Band - "Dive In"
Posted on 2009-05-29 10:13:00
Tags: music worldofwarcraft links
Words: 156

Had a nice relaxing week, apart from being sick Tuesday and Wednesday. Oh, and we downed a few new bosses in Ulduar-10 last night (Kologarn and Auriaya), although no loots for me.

Despite being sick most of the week I found some good links:

- Dave Matthews Band has a new album coming out next week, and you can stream the full thing at Pandora. So far it's pretty good!

- This article about health care in the New Yorker was both fascinating and a little depressing. It looks at why McAllen is the most expensive city for health care in the US, and basically the answer is because the culture for doctors there is to try to maximize revenue.

- How an Intern Stole NASA's Moon Rocks

- A rebuttal to those who claim that the new Star Trek movie threw away a bunch of continuity...short version, Star Trek has been throwing away continuity for quite a while now.

6 comments

A depressing thought followed by happy music
Mood: pleased
Posted on 2009-03-24 12:58:00
Tags: music links
Words: 35

Depressing thought: Apparently, for every 1% increase in unemployment, 47,000 more people die.

Happy music: thru-you is a set of mixed YouTube songs, which doesn't really do it justice. My favorites are #1 and #5!

0 comments

I miss music
Mood: contemplative
Music: Mozart - "Requiem"
Posted on 2009-03-03 10:02:00
Tags: music essay weight
Words: 106

I think I miss singing. Last week I couldn't get the Durufle Requiem out of my head (beautiful piece of music), and today I have the same problem with the Mozart Requiem, probably due to this 30 Rock episode. Maybe after the whole wedding thing I'll look into rejoining Austin Civic Chorus.

Another bit of self-reflection: The last few weeks I've been waaaay too moody. Insignificant things will bring me down, but then I'll feel better for no reason. I'm not sure how to work on that exactly.

We're seeing Watchmen at midnight Thursday and I'm quite excited!

Also, my weight sure bounces around a lot.

8 comments

the usual
Mood: blah
Posted on 2008-09-15 10:40:00
Tags: music politics links
Words: 165

Clinton and Palin on SNL:


Once Elected, Palin Hired Friends and Lashed Foes - one of the things I'm most looking forward to the end of is cronyism - hiring friends for the job rather than the most qualified person. It looks like Palin wouldn't be the end of that at all.

Picked up a few new albums yesterday (I looooove me some amazonmp3.com!) - "Appetite for Destruction" by Guns N' Roses and "Speak for Yourself" by Imogen Heap. I didn't know that Guns N's Roses first album had both "Welcome to the Jungle" and "Sweet Child O' Mine" on it! Interestingly:

According to Rose, the inspiration for the lyrics came from an encounter he and a friend had with a man while they were sleeping in a school yard in Queens. When they were approached by the "little black man", he yelled at them, "You know where you are? You're in the jungle baby; you're gonna die!" This incident inspired the main lyrical declaration for the song.

3 comments

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog soundtrack!
Mood: proud
Music: Joss Whedon - "What A Man's Gotta Do" (IMH)
Posted on 2008-07-21 01:46:00
Tags: music
Words: 89

We watched Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog this weekend and liked it a lot. (it's by the guy who did Buffy, Firefly, etc.) It's a musical, but there's no soundtrack available. However, the songs are so darn catchy that I went ahead and ripped one for myself, thanks to Audio Hijack Pro and Fission. It's available where the rest of my music is, under "Joss Whedon" (which is probably not technically accurate, but oh well). If you don't have the info, drop me a line and I'll hook you up!

14 comments

not a complaint
Mood: worried
Music: Peter Gabriel - "Down to Earth" (from Wall-E soundtrack)
Posted on 2008-07-16 10:38:00
Tags: movies music asmc
Words: 1015

but we have to be off-script and music by Friday. Like, two days from now. That is extremely frightening/implausible.

I bought the Wall-E soundtrack and I'm liking it enough to review it, mostly because I still associate the music with what's happening in the movie and I'm pretty sure that's gonna fade away soon. To that effect:
(you probably shouldn't read this if you haven't seen the movie. and you should probably see the movie.)

Put On Your Sunday Clothes - this is the music that plays over the opening credits when they show what's left of Earth. It even has the nice fade-out effect over the last line "and we won't come home until we've kissed a girl!" which gives it an emptyish feeling. Catchy! 4 stars.
2815 A.D. - the main theme as I think of it - pretty harp music with slightly unsettling background music. Nice xylophone part later. Very...harpy and spacey. 4 stars.
Wall-E - a playful theme - I think this is him doing stuff outside, oh and probably the cockroach bit too. 3 stars.
The Spaceship - Something's happening! A bit of a dancing theme (with the red landing dot, I assume), and then off to the races. This is when Eve's spaceship lands. 3 stars.
EVE - the theme when Eve emerges and flies around gracefully. Harpy again and very pretty and flowing. Definitely 5 stars.
Thrust - not sure what's happening here - maybe the ship is taking off? Back to unsettling/cautious feeling. 3 stars.
Bubble Wrap - I'm guessing this is when Wall-E is showing Eve his home, with the Rubik's cube and bubble wrap and whatnot. Mostly calm, although building a bit. 3 stars.
La Vie En Rose - After Eve shuts down, this is the montage of Wall-E trying to wake her up/take care of her (I think). Or maybe it's Eve and Wall-E adventuring around together. Good Louie Armstrong number. 4 stars.
Eye Surgery - Hmm, maybe these songs aren't exactly in order? Because this is presumably when Eve breaks Wall-E's eye and he has to find a replacement. Harpy and a bit playful. 3 stars.
Worry Wait - oh, or this is when Eve shuts down. Sounds very worried/panicked at first. 3 stars.
First Date - aww. Maybe this is Wall-E taking care of Eve? Upbeat, kinda cheesy and muzaky. Ends with the sound of Pong being played. 4 stars.
Eve Retrieve - back to the main harpy spacey theme. I presume the ship is landing to pick Eve up now. Now it's more action-y as Wall-E tries to get to the ship before it takes off. Danger! But then triumph! 3 stars.
The Axiom - Starts out peaceful and pretty. They're flying through space! Then they approach the Axiom and a nice trumpet theme which is big and regal at the same time kinda implying something is wrong (with some neat discordance). 4 stars.
BNL - Cute little BNL jingle. I like jingles! 4 stars.
Foreign Contaminant - Mouse droid is chasing after Wall-E and stuff. Very active theme - sounds like movement and robots and stuff. 3 stars.
Repair Ward - Eve gets fixed. Kind of an "undercover" feel here. A little boring. Weird drill noises at the end. 3 stars.
72 Degrees and Sunny - Kinda the general Axiom theme, when you see all the BNL signs and everything. Strangely upbeat. 3 stars.
Septuacentennial - yay, 700 years! Short and frantic. 3 stars.
Gopher - not sure what this is, but sounds like robots are moving. 3 stars.
Wall-E's Pod Adventure - dramatic! This is when he's headed back to Earth but manages to escape. Nice cello/viola/something line. 3 stars.
Define Dancing - Wall-E and Eve's dance through space. Very pretty, flowing, harpy. 4 stars.
No Splashing No Diving - I suppose this is when the two people actually get in the pool. Calm, followed by a funky robot beat. 3 stars.
All That Love's About - pretty little love theme. Maybe when Eve is watching what Wall-E did for her after she found the plant? 3 stars.
M-O - that "undercover" theme again. I'm guessing something to do with the mouse droid. 3 stars.
Directive A-113 - captain sees plant is missing, I think? A bit of slow spacey theme at first that turns more sinister and then Axiom-ish. 3 stars.
Mutiny! - um, the mutiny part. Fast moving and robot-y at first, then more action. 3 stars.
Fixing Wall-E - the bit in the trash center on the Axiom where they almost get vented into space. Slow, sad, and xylophony! Turns more upbeat near the end. Pretty. 4 stars.
Rogue Robots - sounds like chase music. Presumably chasing them through the ship :-) 3 stars.
March of the Gels - Axiom-ish theme. I think this is when the broken robots defeat the sentry bots. 3 stars.
Tilt - Presumably when Otto steers the ship and everyone on the Lido Deck (that's a great name for a deck, btw) falls down. Sounds dangerous and dramatic! More of the neat axiom theme with some choir stuff at the end. 3 stars.
The Holo-Detector - When the plant goes in the plant detector? Triumphant at first, then more Axiom-y, then...xylophony, maybe? Something like that. 3 stars.
Hyperjump - Jumping back to Earth! Excited-sounding and dangerous, then triumphant again (with a bit of dissonance). 3 stars.
Desperate Eve - Eve zooms off to try to fix Wall-E. Robot-y, concerned. 4 stars.
Static - Aww, Wall-E doesn't remember Eve! Sad sad xylophone and violins. 3 stars.
It Only Takes a Moment - The love song from Hello Dolly - ends with "to be loved our whole life long". Awwww. 4 stars.
Down to Earth - plays over the end credits. I really like songs over the end credits of good movies, presumably because I'm in a good mood because the movie was good. Anyway, I love this song and it's been stuck in my head for a few days and will probably stay there for a while. 5 stars!
Horizon 12.2 - pretty music that maybe also played over the end credits? Sounds spacey and harpy. 4 stars.

Anyway, wow that was a lot of typing for minimal benefit. Next time I do this it will be on an album with fewer than 38 tracks!

4 comments

just the usual
Mood: okay
Posted on 2008-07-14 13:33:00
Tags: music links
Words: 134

Feeling more normal today. Had fun with my family, with whom we saw Wall*E again and then Esther's Follies which was pretty awesome. Wall*E was good again - the good parts I appreciated more (even during the second half of the movie). It's a very good movie. Gonna grab the soundtrack (which almost by definition was good given the limited dialogue) tomorrow as well as Nas's new album, both of which I'm excited about. Yay Amazon mp3 store!

Links I was going to post on Friday:
- A little more about Phil Gramm's "mental recession" and "nation of whiners" remarks. What a stupid stupid thing to say.
- Video of a lightning strike...hitting the video taker. She's fine, but it's a little loud.
- The growth of Walmart across America - neato timeline map thing. I love data visualization!

2 comments

mathing it up after dark
Mood: cheerful
Posted on 2008-05-20 09:37:00
Tags: music math projects
Words: 218

I couldn't sleep last night, so I worked on the Target probabilities project. It was annoying me that the old version of the generated HTML (which was generated by LaTeX2HTML) looked kinda ugly - look how jagged the math graphics are! (especially compared with the beauty that is the generated .dvi file) So I tried a few different packages and settled on TeX4ht, which produced this much nicer looking page. Ah, that's better. (although why is that table floating to the right? grr)

I've been making slow progress on actually figuring out the numbers (3 card straights and straight flushes are the worst!) but I'm getting there. Getting the right numbers is a little more challenging.

Before that, we watched Citizen Kane (still good even though we weren't paying full attention) and I played some GTA IV, including a little multiplayer with destroyerj. It was tough without a headset and sucking at the game :-) I managed to flip the cop car we were driving in, and another time destroyerj was driving and I was shooting at something and I saw him jump out of the car. Had just enough time to wonder "Huh?" before we slammed into a stopped car and caught on fire :-)

Finally downloaded The Slip by Nine Inch Nails. So far: very good.

Game night tonight!

4 comments

Chrstina Aguilera: gay icon?
Mood: curious
Posted on 2008-05-09 14:50:00
Tags: music
Words: 64

Is Christina Aguilera a gay icon and I just didn't realize it? If not, why not?

I'm listening to her album "Stripped" and so far it's pretty full of strong woman be yourself kinda songs. The song "Beautiful" really exemplifies this (and the music video for it won a GLAAD award for using gay and transgender images).

...aha, according to Wikipedia she is! Yay!

2 comments

scenes that made me look twice
Mood: mischievous
Posted on 2008-05-06 12:48:00
Tags: music asmc
Words: 70

1) The guy who had his laptop open and was doing work on it while walking down the stairs during our fire drill.

2) The elderly woman playing some sort of puzzle game on a pink Nintendo DS at lunch.

I was thinking about doing "Mix Tape" from Avenue Q for my ASMC audition Saturday, but now I'm pretty convinced "My Girlfriend, Who Lives In Canada" is the right choice.

7 comments

BOCA 2006 review
Mood: busy
Posted on 2008-04-29 09:05:00
Tags: music
Words: 619

I got some new CDs for my birthday, so I'm in a reviewing mood, so here goes:

First up is BOCA (Best of Collegiate A Capella) 2006. I now have 6 different years so I feel like I have a decent basis for comparison here. You can listen to an Amazon preview here.

Let's Get It Started - Tufts Beelzebubs - Not bad, but it's lacking some energy. I'm not a huge fan of the original song which obviously hurts. 3 stars in my iTunes.
My Happy Ending - University of North Carolina Loreleis - Lead singer's voice is not bad, although there's obviously some mixing going on in the background. Not that mixing is necessarily bad, but it makes it sound less a capella and more like the original, which is bad in this case. This version is just kind of boring, honestly. 3 stars.
Something Like That - University of Oregon on the Rocks - Wow, a country song. Not used to hearing that in a capella. Kinda groovy I guess. 3 stars.
Tribute - The Pitchforks of Duke University - Yay, a song I like! Good harmonies, spirited. 4 stars.
Let Go - James Madison University Low Key - I love this song. The lead singer obviously doesn't sound exactly like Imogen, but she has a good whispery tone. I like how the chorus sounds more a capellaish than some of the other songs (i.e. it doesn't sound heavily mixed). 5 stars.
The Scientist - Cornell University Last Call - I don't like the weird echo effect. Lead singer is kinda bland and the song never settles into a good groove (also, it's kinda long). 3 stars.
Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy - University of Virginia Hullabahoos - Well, this is a weird song. Peppy, though. 3 stars.
Renegade - Boston University Dear Abbeys - I like this song. When we (the phils) went to competition a group from BYU did this live and it was awesome. This isn't as good but still pretty catchy. 4 stars.
Yeah - University of Oregon Divisi - bouncy, peppy. Good rhythm, and the rap section in the middle kicks it up to 4 stars.
Crazy Train - University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Clef Hangers - A pretty good version of the song, but it's a little boring. 3 stars.
So Cold - University of Pennsylvania Off the Beat - I like this group a lot - they seem to always be on BOCA CDs. Passionate song. 4 stars.
Hallelujah - Clemson University TakeNote - wow, this is like the 10th version of this song I've heard. The lead singer's voice just doesn't do it for me. 3 stars.
Mystify/Atrevete - MIT Resonance - Yeah, OK, I can get behind it. 4 stars.
You and I Both - Michigan State University Accafellas - The background vocals are pretty good but this song (original included) is just boring. 3 stars.
Are You Happy Now - Elon University Twisted Measure - yikes, another boring song. Why why why? 2 stars.
Crumbs - University of Southern California Sirens - Lead singer has a nice voice. This is a weird song I haven't heard before. 4 stars.
Don't Change Your Plans - Harvard Callbacks - I love this song to death. Listened to it at least 5 times yesterday. Good background and although the lead singer is a woman and doesn't really sound like Ben Folds it really clicks. 5 stars!
The Reason - University of Virginia Academical Village People - the parody words are cute, and the singing's pretty good. 4 stars.
The Memory Remains - Stanford University Harmonics - Metallica a capella? Why not? They did a pretty good job with the complex backgrounds and stuff. 4 stars.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Clemson Tigeroar - more excitement would be nice but it's still good. 4 stars.

All in all, not a bad album but not as good as some previous years.

0 comments

SxSW music
Mood: accomplished
Music: Bodies of Water - "I Guess I'll Forget the Sound, I Guess, I Guess"
Posted on 2008-03-25 10:19:00
Tags: health music links
Words: 262

Bands coming to South by Southwest (never been - gotta make it one of these years!) can release a free MP3. Paul Ford listened to all 763(!) of them and gave them six-word reviews. (short interview in the Houston Press, in which the interviewer mentioned he once listened to 24 hours straight of Houston radio, changing the station every 3 minutes) It even manages to be pretty amusing along the way.

If you're looking for a distraction, you could do a lot worse than listen to the 4 and 5 circles tunes. I was going to listen to all of them and pick my favorites, but I'm really busy now apparently, so here are the ones I got to listen to and liked.

* Creature - Brigitte Bardot - Didn't like them quite as much as Paul. Reminds me of Freezepop.
* Alabama3 - Woke Up This Morning - it's the Sopranos theme! I loooove that guy's voice - nice deep baritone.
* Wisely - Through Any Window - catchy guitar and vocals.
* Album - Stab You - "Mexican alt-rock" is a pretty good description.
* Black Tie Dynasty - Tender - as promised, kinda 80s-ish.
* The BoDeans - Everyday - nice guitar backing, sounds...good. (this is why I don't review albums)
* Bodies of Water - I Guess I'll Forget the Sound, I Guess, I Guess - interesting mix of choral folk singing and jamming and stuff. Nice harmonies. Very very good!
* Chiwoniso - Kurima - catchy African drumming and xylophone and guitar and stuff.
* Dr. Dog - The Girl - interesting Beatles-esque sound.


Also, randomly: this neat patientslikeme.com where you can share your experience with drugs/treatments. Article in NY Times about it.

(all via waxy.org)

2 comments

check, check, check
Mood: tired
Posted on 2008-01-21 09:19:00
Tags: movies pictures music house
Words: 325

Stuff we did this weekend that's worth mentioning:

- Saw "Juno". Good movie - the first scene had me worried that the whole thing was going to be very snappy and sound like it was written by writers who thought they were awesome, but it calmed down after that. Also, Michael Cera + Jason Bateman == win.

- Saw "Cloverfield". Also a good movie. I will avoid spoilers but I'd recommend it if you like horrorish movies. Kept me awake for a little while last night :-)

- Bought new music! In order of how much I expect to like them:
- Radiohead - "In Rainbows". Yeah, I should have gotten this a while ago but I was busy or something. Anyway, I've only heard the one track but it was pretty good and, come on, it's Radiohead!
- Arcade Fire - "Neon Bible". I listened to this on mediator and looved it.
- Nine Inch Nails - "Year Zero". I heard some samples and wasn't terribly impressed, but I like the concept so I'll give it a shot.
- White Stripes - "Icky Thump". I liked the samples I heard, so who knows.
- The Magnetic Fields - "Distortion". "California Girls" is a really catchy song but I dunno about the rest of the album. We'll see...

- Took down the Christmas tree in 10 minutes.

- Gave notice to our apartment that we're leaving.

- Went to the NI-sponsored hockey game, which was fun. The Ice Bats won!

- Bought a hot tub! We just stopped by to look at them but the '07 models were on clearance and the guy sold us the floor model for substantially cheaper than the "regular price". Anyway, we spent about what we wanted to spend so it's fine.

- Put pictures and videos of David's brother's wedding up. This was the first event that I used my Flip Video at (besides house-hunting) and let me tell you - editing the videos and such is a real pain. I gotta find a better way...(and fix the thumbnails at some point)

6 comments

role reversal, music recommendations
Mood: calm
Music: Carly Comando - "Everyday"
Posted on 2008-01-17 10:18:00
Tags: getflix music projects work
Words: 485

This week I've been in the odd position of being really excited about work and not so excited about non-work projects. Work has been going really well - a lot of the setup for my big project is done so I'm getting into the fun part. The non-work project of pulling down Netflix ratings and analyzing them is pretty similar to what I've done in the past, but has enough different parts that just aren't interesting to leave me totally unenthusiastic about working on it. But I've already done enough that I feel like I should finish. I'll put it on hiatus for a while.

We've been catching up on Simpsons episodes from the last few months with people, and as a result I've seen "Eternal Moonshine of the Simpson Mind" twice in the last week or so. It's a pretty good episode, but the part that struck me both times was the montage-like scene where it shows lots of pictures of Homer throughout his life to some hauntingly beautiful piano music. Anyway, djedi found the song, which is called "Everyday" by Carly Comando and I bought it last night - yay for Amazon MP3! The scene itself is based on Noah takes a photo of himself every day for 6 years which is pretty creepy in itself, although the music really amplifies that. Good stuff all around, and I feel bad I missed this all the way back in 2006.

Yesterday at lunch I was really happy because of a problem I had just solved, so I went out to Pars Deli, a greek place at 183 and Burnet. Unfortunately, the parking spots are deceptively thin, and so as I was pulling in I heard a noise and realized I hit the car parked next to me. After I parked and got out, the car looked like a mess, but I could brush off most of it. (dust from my bumper or something?) There was still a scratch that was very narrow but kind of long, and I wasn't quite sure what to do, and I was mad for having done it, so I just walked away to the deli. It didn't take long for my conscience to get the better of me and realize that that was a pretty stupid/selfish/horrible thing to do, so after I ordered I went back out there and left a short note with some paper I found in the car. Not my finest hour - "doing the right thing...eventually" isn't exactly high praise.

I have a few Best Buy gift cards and kinda prompted by that I'm looking for some new music. Definitely getting the new Radiohead album, other options include "Year Zero" by Nine Inch Nails, "Distortion" by The Magnetic Fields, maybe something by LCD Soundsystem ("Sound of Silver"?), maybe something by Arcade Fire. I am open to suggestions! (surprisingly hip suggestions stolen from the AV Club's best of 2007)

2 comments

Spiers' Speech
Mood: hyper
Posted on 2008-01-14 14:57:00
Tags: music quiz
Words: 287

(stolen from cifarelli)

Directions:
1. Put your iTunes, Windows Media Player, iPod etc. on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS

1. IF SOMEONE SAYS "IS THIS OKAY" YOU SAY?
One Of My Turns

2. HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOURSELF?
Valley Winter Song

3. WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
Tu Me Gustas

4. HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?
Twinkle

5. WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?
Lux Aeterna - O Nata Lux

6. WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?
Sunglasses At Night

7. WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
Rice Fight Song

8. WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
Open Arms

9. WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
Rivage

10. WHAT IS 2 + 2?
Laudate dominum

11. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR EX?
Good Times

12. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
In The Hall of the Mountain King

13. WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
Down So Long

14. WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
30 Sec. Bonnet

15. WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Star Wars Medley

16. WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
Lucky Denver Mint

17. WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
Tonight I Wanna Cry

18. WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST FEAR?
Best I Ever Had (Grey Sky Morning)

19. WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
Time After Time

20. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
3 Small Words

Now press Next one more time and use it as your title.


Not bad; I wanna be a 30 sec. bonnet when I grow up! As I always say, "Sunglasses at night"...

0 comments

weekend update
Mood: okay
Posted on 2007-12-02 18:43:00
Tags: movies music projects house
Words: 332

Friday started pretty crappily (as I noted), then we went to see Beowulf 3D with people. It was better than I expected - I guess 3D technology has come a ways since I last saw it. The movie was pretty typical action fare, except it was all motion capture CGI-y. It was pretty well done - you could tell most of the time that the characters weren't real actors, and some of the emotions didn't come through as well as they could have, but not bad.

The music was also surprisingly good - the few themes they used are pretty catchy, and the "main" song was sung during the end credits by Idina Menzel! (the original Elphaba in Wicked)

Saturday was spent being cranky for a large part of the day for various reasons. We did get to start Super Mario Galaxy which is a lot of fun, and hang out with wildrice13 in the evening. I worked on my arena rating graph which is coming along nicely - got some statistics to show. (did you know we are much better against teams with 0 mages than teams with 1 mage?) Next step is making it so you can choose criteria (say, matches where the opponents had at least one hunter and paladin that we played in Blade's Edge) and show statistics based on that. Should be fun.

Today was church and then house-hunting. After talking for a while about the way things work (helpful if a bit long), we looked at 6 houses. Unsurprisingly, our top choice was one that looked kinda OK on paper, and our #1 choice on paper was OK but not great (and is under contract anyway so we can't buy it). I took a ton of pictures that hopefully will help us remember the one we liked. It was pretty good but not super amazing or anything. I guess in the future we'll just get more listings from our agent and periodically look at more houses. It's a bit anticlimactic.

3 comments

i dunno, stuff and such
Mood: bouncy
Posted on 2007-11-27 13:17:00
Tags: music house worldofwarcraft
Words: 433

Busy week! Last night was a WoW raid (more on that below), tonight is game night, Wed. is a church thing and Thurs. I'm probably going on a Rice recruiting dinner thing.

The past weekend at home was nice, albeit a bit busy. And I could have done without the rain. We did manage to assemble a new grill for my dad. I'm getting a little tired of the drive to Houston - if you count the renaissance festival last weekend (you drive all the way to Brenham and then some more) and if I drive on Thursday that will be 3 trips back and forth to/from Houston in less than three weeks. Oh well.

We're going to look at houses on Saturday! Exciting stuff.

I finally broke down and bought the Beach Boys's (that's the correct punctuation, right grammar folks?) album "Pet Sounds". (I say "broke down" because we have very few magazines in our bathroom and the one that's always open is mental_floss and it's always open to the article about Masterpiece #98, which is that album) I bought it from the Amazon MP3 store which I'm starting to love for convenience and pricing. ($8 for the whole album!) Anyway, it has some catchy songs but overall I'm not as impressed...maybe my expectations were high after reading it was #2 on Rolling Stone's top 500 albums of all time. It's growing on me a little as I listen, but not as much as I would have hoped. Also, I have 0 of the top 25 albums on that list (well, except for "Pet Sounds" now). Shameful? Maybe.

So the last (and first) time we went to Zul'Aman, we had to take a PuG offtank, and so we wiped many times on Nalorrak (the bear boss), and finally downed him after like 3 hours. Since we had our real offtank last night, we thought we'd try to do it in 20 minutes. (for "extra" loot, meaning two pieces instead of one) We engaged him within 20 minutes, barely, but apparently you have to kill him within 20 minutes to get the loot...since it takes us 8 minutes to kill him, that will be difficult.

Anyway, we went ahead and tried Halazzi (the lynx boss). We wiped probably 20+ times trying it...we did make some progress, getting him to 70% once, but no better. Pretty frustrating, all in all. We discussed some strategies at lunch (wings!) that will probably help, but we might just try Akil'zon (the eagle boss) instead, whom we thought we were headed towards last night. He's supposed to be easier.

3 comments

iTunes rating analysis! Portal, TexRenFest.
Mood: uncomfortable
Posted on 2007-11-19 09:58:00
Tags: pictures music itunesanalysis projects links
Words: 322

I'm "officially" releasing the iTunes Rating Analysis after making a few last minute tweaks. Unfortunately you have to be at your home computer (or whatever computer your iPod is synced to) to use it, but you can at least see see my analysis, complete with fancy charts! Not being able to use it at work means it'll probably be significantly less popular than the WoW Frost Mage DPS calculator (currently the most popular page on my site by a factor of 2 or 3 or so), but that is OK.

We bought and played through Portal this weekend, which is a first person puzzle game and pretty darn fun (and pretty short). The end credits song is extremely cute and catchy, and it's sung by the passive-aggressive computer who's talking to you for the whole game. The song was written by Jonathan Coulton (here's his blog post about writing the song) who happens to have lots of music available for download! So I'll probably check that out this week. Edit: live version of Jonathan Coulton performing "Still Alive" - there's cake!

wildrice13, abstractseaweed, quijax, djedi and I went to the Renaissance Festival on Saturday. David and I were going to see the Bolton's renewal of vows (here are the few pictures that I took - we participated in the ceremony so I didn't want to interrupt too much :-) ) which went well except for their not letting us do it at the festival proper (the words used were "unauthorized wedding" which I found amusing), so we went out to the parking lot and had a nice ceremony. The trip back wasn't so great - we got stuck in the parking lot as everyone else was leaving and then there was an accident 10-15 cars in front of us just as we were about to get to 290, so we didn't moved for half an hour or so. Ugh.

I slept on my neck funny. It hurts.

5 comments

clearing out tabs
Mood: okay
Posted on 2007-10-02 15:50:00
Tags: music links
Words: 106

Radiohead is releasing their new album on October 10. You can order a fancy disc set or download it from them and pay whatever you want for it(!), which is pretty exciting.

And on the topic of downloading music, Amazon opened their MP3 store, from which you can buy and download 2 million MP3 files, unencumbered by DRM. This is great stuff (information about the downloader, which doesn't work on Linux) and I'm planning on buying Radiohead's Amnesiac from them when I get around to it.

It's not happening here, but it's happening now - striking ad campaign by Amnesty International, in the style of transparent screens.

1 comment

Writer's Block: Music: My First Favorite Band
Mood: mellow
Posted on 2007-09-10 11:02:00
Tags: hpmusic music writer's block what do you have to say?
Words: 97

The first band I was a fan of was "Weird Al" Yankovic. This was in middle/high school, and I went through a phase where I listened to exclusively him - no radio, etc. I remember thinking "Why would I listen to popular music when I can hear a lot of popular songs but with funny lyrics?" It was always a thrill when I'd later hear the real version of a song I only knew as a parody. Not being exposed to more popular music always made me feel a little out of touch, though. I wouldn't recommend it.

0 comments

good music ftw
Mood: happy
Posted on 2007-06-05 10:26:00
Tags: music
Words: 30

Wow, I've listened to 30 seconds of "Kid A" (the album, not the song) and I think I'm going to love it.

Also awesome: "The Bends", Wilco's "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot"

3 comments

what if money were no object?
Mood: calm
Music: Radiohead - "The Bends"
Posted on 2007-06-04 09:27:00
Tags: music poll
Words: 342

(this is by no means an original question) Let's say that you won the lottery today, and you'd be receiving enough money to live on comfortably (maybe a little lower than your current standard of living) for the rest of your life.


My thoughts, cut to avoid influencing your answers :-)

For me, work is more than just a way to earn money; it's a way for me to make a difference (however small) in the world. I guess even if I couldn't find a job that I liked/was sufficiently good at, I would spend my time doing work-like activities. (contributing to open source products, etc.)


We had a good weekend. The weather was pretty nice on Friday and Saturday - we got together with a work friend and played some Mario Party 8. (verdict: not much different from previous Mario Parties, but still fun, and the minigames that use Wiimote functionality were neat) Saturday was gorgeous in the afternoon and I went out and got new CDs: 3 Radiohead, 2 Wilco, the new Linkin Park, and the Muse one with "Knights of Cydonia". The last I got because I was reminded of the songs existence via wildrice13 who was excited it was going to be on Guitar Hero III. I heard it at New Year's, and really liked it. The sample on iTunes was OK but not the part I remembered. Anyway, I listened to it later, and at first was disappointed because it was neat but not awesome like I remembered. Then it got to the good part with the great harmonies and stuff and I was happy and listened to it like 6 times :-) Point being, all the albums are up on my music site if you'd like to listen (if you don't have access, drop me a line!)

quijax came later that evening, after it started raining. (I think, anyway...it was definitely raining most of the time) It was fun having a guest! (and somewhat reinforced our feelings of missing our friends and not getting to hang out with people)

7 comments

new music for moi
Mood: good
Posted on 2007-05-30 10:55:00
Tags: music
Words: 144

So I have this $20 Best Buy gift card that's burning a hole in my pocket. Given the insane amount of music I need to keep me sane at work, I was thinking of getting some more Radiohead. Summize is this neat review aggregator that shows a nice 5 color bar summary of reviews (from super-awesome to wow-this-sucks), so I thought I'd see what it had to say about Radiohead albums. (although for some reason The Bends has very few reviews) Based on y'all's suggestions, I was thinking about picking up The Bends, Hail to the Thief, and maybe Kid A as well.

Wilco's good, too, right? I heard Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was good, but it's kinda countryish which I'm not thrilled about. (saw it described as a "Hillbilly OK Computer", which sounds...interesting) I need to listen to some samples when I get home...

4 comments

hangin' on
Mood: high-strung
Posted on 2007-04-11 14:26:00
Tags: pictures music links
Words: 94

Pictures from Easter are up.

The author of the Joshua Bell street performer article I linked to earlier took part in an online discussion with Washington Post readers. Good stuff!

Now that "The Show with ze Frank" is over, you can buy an album of songs from the show, including the very catchy "Where the Fuck Do Ideas Come From?"

Recent developments have left me a bit jittery.

American Airlines just launched a website for women who travel. Umm, what? Someone please explain to me how this isn't horribly insulting and stereotypical and stupid.

3 comments

*yawn*
Mood: tired
Posted on 2007-03-13 08:14:00
Tags: dreams music microresolution worldofwarcraft
Words: 705

It's weird leaving the apartment before my daily cron job runs...

So my latest project is taking data from the WoW armory and showing neat stuff with it. I'll probably put the public page up tomorrow. Microresolution: my next project will not be WoW-related.

Weird dream: I dreamt I had made a few friends and then I found out a friend was stealing them away from me (i.e. they weren't going to be my friend anymore). I was very upset about this and was ready to write a scathing LiveJournal post!

I've been listening to a lot of Avenue Q lately. My thoughts, after the cut:

At first, my favorites were the obvious ones - "Everyone's A Little Bit Racist", "The Internet Is For Porn", "Schadenfreude". After a few listens, I think my current favorites are "Mix Tape", "Schadenfreude", and "I Wish I Could Go Back to College". Here's why!

The Avenue Q Theme - cute little ditty. Does a good job of sounding like the Sesame Street without really "borrowing" any melodies.
What Do You Do with a B.A. in English?/It Sucks To Be Me - A nice peppy song. I like the little harmony part when they all start singing. The first "appearance" of Gary Coleman, whose stage representation has a really nice voice. I should take this opportunity to say that the Japanese character (don't know her name) has a really annoying voice. Ugh.
If You Were Gay - Rod's voice is a little bit off at the beginning. ("how can it get any better than this?") I do like the song because the comedy is done well, especially Rod's indignance. :-)
Purpose - I guess this is supposed to drive the plot a little, but this song is more or less boring. The guy's voice is reasonably nice, though.
Everyone's A Little Bit Racist - So I definitely like some of this song. The melody is nice, and I do like the message that perhaps we shoudl relax a little bit about race, and that no one's truly colorblind (a la Stephen Colbert's "I don't see race"). But it goes a little far (needlessly?) in kinda implying because of this, it's OK to tell racist jokes, make fun of people, etc, instead of maybe trying to make things better. See above re Japanese character's voice. Also, Gary Coleman saying "Whatchoo talking 'bout Kate?" is pretty funny.
The Internet Is For Porn - Cute song. I like Trekkie Monster. Kate's indignance is pulled off pretty well, too - her voice fits her character very well.
Mix Tape - I like this song a lot. The melodies going on in the background are very pretty (and catchy!), and the whole premise of the song (that you can tell if someone likes you by the songs they put on your mix tape) is pretty funny. "Fat Bottomed Girls" indeed!
I'm Not Wearing Underwear Today - Huh? Maybe this makes sense in context. At least it's short.
Special - Meh. Don't really like her voice.
You Can Be as Loud as the Hell You Want (When You're Makin' Love) - Funny. Again with liking Gary Coleman's voice. I should add I feel weird listening to this song at work :-)
Fantasies Come True - This song is...OK. It's really more sad than anything. Poor Rod...
My Girlfriend, Who Lives in Canada - Even though it follows the sad song, I can't help laughing. The frantic voice totally makes it! I like the way he says "Canada" too.
There's a Fine, Fine Line - Not bad. Voice is good.
There Is Life Outside Your Apartment - A cute song, but it doesn't quite click with me.
The More You Ruv Someone - hate hate hate skip
Schadenfreude - Funny, upbeat, and lots of Gary Coleman. What's not to love? I can put up with the meanness!
I Wish I Could Go Back to College - Really pretty song, and who hasn't wanted to go back to college at some point? Best song on the album, if just for the a capella section.
The Money Song - Cute song.
School for Monsters/The Money Song - It's OK. I do like Trekkie Monster.
a bunch of reprises - Not bad.
For Now - Good ending song. Everything is temporary!

I honestly forget the point of this. Oh well. The point is, good album.

7 comments

weird week
Mood: complacent
Posted on 2007-02-15 14:15:00
Tags: music
Words: 138

What a weird week. Yesterday was super nice - we got the day off from work because of the snow and ice and such, so we played WoW in the afternoon, djedi cooked me a delicious supper, and we watched that classic romantic movie "Transformers: The Movie". Hadn't seen it before - good stuff! The theme song is still stuck in my head. (also, why is "Dare to be Stupid" by Weird Al played during the movie? That's just weird) And Orson Welles (who does a voice in the movie) made a cameo in my dream last night!

Lots of snow on the ground this morning, so we got into work late and we were able to stop by the bank and take care of some stuff. I still need to address letters and send them out. Maybe next week.

5 comments

Snow!
Mood: excited
Music: The Slip - "Airplane/Primitive"
Posted on 2007-01-22 10:04:00
Tags: music snow
Words: 131

It finally snowed here!! Started falling around 3 yesterday and continued until dark. We went outside for a few minutes and played in it. It was really pretty :-) No work cancellation, but some school districts did today. The drive in to work was fine, albeit a little slower than usual.

I'd like to get holiday pictures up soon, but I'm not sure it's gonna happen.

I feel borderline ridiculous about this, since they were hot in the 90s and I missed them completely, but I really like Radiohead. "OK Computer" is awesome and I might just pick up "The Bends" per y'all's recommendation. This weekend I bought a CD by The Slip ("Even Rats" was a bonus track on Guitar Hero 1 that I loved) and so far it's sounding good.

3 comments

Microresolutions
Mood: optimistic
Music: Radiohead - "OK Computer" album
Posted on 2007-01-08 09:37:00
Tags: music dodgeball microresolution
Words: 274

Like most people, I would often make New Year's Resolutions and promptly forget/ignore them come, say, January 15. But in an age of microgames (WarioWare series of games) and microtransactions (Xbox Live Marketplace, Wii Virtual Console), why not microresolutions? On Friday, I made a microresolution that I would work out at least twice over the weekend (stipulating that dodgeball Saturday morning counted), and I ended up going to the gym Sunday to fulfill the microresolution. Success! Next up: I had a few bad headaches this weekend and I bet they're from caffeine withdrawal. Microresolution: no caffeine (tea/chocolate excluded) from today until Wednesday (inclusive). We'll see how this one goes.

Speaking of dodgeball, djedi came to watch my game on Saturday. We lost both rounds, but I did "win" our only game for our team. It came down to me and a girl on the other team, and I threw maybe five balls at her before I finally (barely) hit her. She was good at dodging! I felt a little bad because she's a girl (and I was throwing the ball fairly hard, which was helpful because when I missed it would bounce off the wall and come back to me), but one of the consequences of feminism is that I'm not supposed to feel bad about stuff like that, right?

I spent a Best Buy gift card this weekend and, on a whim, I bought the Radiohead "OK Computer" album without hearing any songs on it, although it's ridiculously critically acclaimed. Listening to it now for the first time - my microreaction is that I like it. :-)

Why doesn't the LJ spell checker recognize "dodgeball"?

8 comments

unexpected goodness
Mood: relieved
Posted on 2006-09-30 16:02:00
Tags: music car
Words: 485

So as djedi and I were pulling up to our complex yesterday and all of a sudden my Prius freaks out a little and puts up a warning light. No smoke pouring out of the engine, but I pull in to a parking space and djedi checks the manual. Some sort of brake problem, but it's not so serious that the car can't be driven. But it does say to take it in to get checked ASAP. "Crap" is the general thought, since we only have one car right now, so it being out of commission means no easy way to get to work. (and we're not sure what the hard way would be)

We get in and I call the nearest Toyota dealer, who says that they can maybe fit me in on Saturday, but Jeannie isn't in and this guy doesn't want to mess with her appointment book or something. Ooohkay. He tells me to call when they open tomorrow (8 AM).

Ugh...was looking forward to sleeping in, but we need a car! So I get up and call them. Nope, no way they can see it today. Great. So I go down the list of dealerships close to us. Get all kinds of "no"s and the occasional "we can't promise we can see it today but you can leave it here", which is just as bad for our purposes. I'm starting to get annoyed and a bit concerned when I make it down to the tenth one on the list (which by now is really not that close, but I figure it's OK to drive...). The guy is friendly and says I can bring it in, and to hurry. So I throw on some clothes, get directions and head out there.

40 minutes or so later I find the place, and again they're friendly and the guy at the desk says they'll diagnose it within an hour(!). I sit down to read (having planned to be there most of the day in the worst case) and start the David Sedaris book Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, which is absolutely brilliant. Slightly more than an hour later I hear my name being called, and I rush out to see what the verdict is. Turned out they didn't find anything wrong: brake pads were fine, brake fluid was sufficiently present, and the code that set off the master alarm (that sounds like Apollo 13!) was nothing in particular, or something. The best part is that they didn't charge me anything!

So if you're in Maryland and need a Toyota dealer, I recommend Fitzgerald Lakeforest.

Some sort of crab-related product for dinner and then I'm going to another game nightish thing, all in the vain hopes of replacing the one we had in Austin!

Also, I have the theme song (track 3) to House irrevocably stuck in my head. I should buy that.

3 comments

it's only wednesday??
Mood: tired
Posted on 2006-07-19 10:18:00
Tags: music links
Words: 127

I was gonna save these until Friday, but I'm tired and bored (waiting for a looong compile) now.

Christopher Tin composed the opening Civ4 music (there are more nice samples of his compositions), and when I read that I thought it was the same guy who did the music for Futurama. Turns out that's Christopher Tyng...so close!

Ken Lay was compared to Martin Luther King, James Byrd (black man lynched in Texas), and Jesus himself at his funeral. I understand respect for the dead, but this is ridiculous.

Daily Show segment on Mr. T - I love Mr. T!

Sound files created with pirated software shipped with Windows XP.

AOL Retention Manual - a followup to the story of the guy trying desperately to cancel his AOL account.

1 comment

rehearsal me tired
Mood: tired
Music: Stanford Talisman A Capella - "Baba Yetu"
Posted on 2006-07-17 09:33:00
Tags: dreams music civilization4
Words: 482

So I got back in to Civilization 4 this weekend. My current goal is to win on Warlord (difficulty level 3 of 9). The last game I started like a week ago was going great, I was way ahead in tech (as usual) and had fought off a few skirmishes, when my next door neighbor totally started laying the smackdown on my fair England. He was about to take London when I stopped, and although I tried to load that game to see it through to the bitter end, it seemed to not load for some reason. Although I can't say I tried too hard.

So, new game! I decided to go for a military victory, which I never never do, just for the novelty of it. So I played as Genghis Khan of Mongolia, and started pumping out military units pretty early. When you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail, so I "nailed" my next door neighbor America (who totally had it coming even though they didn't do anything to me :-) ). I wiped them out and now have a large part of a continent to myself (I foolishly let two other civs have a few cities in what should be my territory, so I'm trying to take them out culturally...we'll see). The weird part is, despite my pumping out Knights and Longbowmen and Cavalry like nobody's business, I'm still (barely) ahead in tech as well, which means things are looking good! I have the highest score, and France has the next-highest score, which means I'm gearing up for war with them. The problem is that I just got the tech for some good naval units, so I'm getting ready to bombard their cities and land troops on their continent. Anyway, I'm having a blast :-)

Interesting sidenote - both djedi and I love the opening music, and I found some information about it (yay Wikipedia!) - it was performed by a Stanford a capella group (although they're not a capella for this version), and the game stores it in .mp3 format, so I'm gonna add it to my iPod next chance I get. It's also available online, and I'd highly recommend giving it a listen. Might pick up one of their CDs sometime...


So I dreamed I was at Rice, although not back in school there. The US was having a big meeting with North Korea and it took place at Rice (kinda like when Rice hosted the G8 summit). Apparently various Rice student groups were performing for a big audience, I think it was on the academic quad. Anyway, the Phils were there, and they sang a love song while surrounding Kim Jong-il's wife. I thought this was a very very bad idea, but he and his entourage just sat there, not really reacting or anything.


Edit: Wow, we're moving to the fourth best place to live in the country. Neat!

16 comments

warning: good weekend ahead
Mood: happy! not sick!
Music: Lordi - "Hard Rock Hallelujah"
Posted on 2006-05-26 09:37:00
Tags: pictures music ruby palmtogooglecalendar links
Words: 500

Already this weekend (starts on Thursday!) has been good - we finished Maraudon last night in WoW, which was fun (despite an infuriating part where Dextra and I (the two people who can rez) died and had to spirit rez and fight our way back. Scary!), and I got a shiny new dagger and orb.

Another good thing - I'm not sure yet, but I think I've solved my work problem...but not in a great way. It's like finally arriving at Disney World in Georgia (the country, not the state), and you're tired but happy you finally got there, and then getting out and realizing that Tennessee (where you started) is really right across the street from Georgia (the country, not the state). And you think everyone is mocking you for taking such a roundabout journey when you were right there, except they presumably aren't. Whee. I think I'll put this analogy to rest :-)

I have a problem...I cannot stop listening to "Hard Rock Hallelujah"! Seriously. Sometimes songs stick in my head so long, it actually makes my stomach hurt (and can keep me up at night). This song isn't there yet, but it's headed that way...

I put up pictures of Stephen's graduation. Next up - pictures from wonderjess's graduation! And then the pictures I will have acquired in the intervening time. Yikes.

Had a breakthrough in the palm to google calendar thing last night.

So the problem I had been having was that, when you connected to start the syncing process, it wouldn't return until it was done, which means that you couldn't poll for status updates. (actually, I guess you could, but then you'd have two connections open at once unnecessarily) So, I tried something like this:

# Create session and return session id to browser

pid = fork do

   # Do long-running stuff

end

Process.detach(pid)

# Create session and return session id to browser

pid = fork do

   $stdout.close

   $stdin.close

   $stderr.close

   # Do long-running stuff

end

Process.detach(pid)

7 comments

a few random things
Posted on 2006-05-25 12:42:00
Tags: music palmtogooglecalendar links
Words: 140

If you haven't seen the winning Eurovision song, and you like seeing people from Finland dressed as Klingons (or something), you owe it to yourself to check it out!

So I saw in my referrer logs that some MySpace page was using my spade image (), so I decided to look at the site. Aaand...wow. I think my eyes exploded just looking at that.

I made some good progress on the palm to google calendar thing - it's mostly working and the server is updating status as it goes. Now I need to figure out why the client doesn't poll for status until the server is done, and make the client display status in some nice and friendly way. Oh, and make it a bit more secure, too, just in case. Hopefully in another week or two it will be doneish!

14 comments

workin' for the weekend...
Mood: chipper
Music: Aural Pleasure - "Enjoy the Silence"
Posted on 2006-04-19 12:47:00
Tags: music links
Words: 182

(apparently today is "play songs Greg has a capella versions of" on Austin radio...on the way home from Jason's Deli I heard "Rosanna", followed by that Beverly Hills song I'm sick of, so I switched stations to hear "Come Undone". Neat!)

LiveJournal just announced a new account level (Sponsored+) that gets you most of the benefits of a paid account for free, while showing ads on your journal. I'm not huge on advertising, but this is the right way to do it - it's up to each person whether to show the ads or not (and there is incentive to), while free accounts maintain the same abilities they've always had. And paid accounts don't see ads on any pages to boot!

Angry/negative people can be bad for your brain - interesting article!

Play Syzygy! The creator of the game emailed me after seeing my Syzygy pictures (random!) I didn't realize it was created and distributed by one person - good stuff! It's a good game, although one I haven't played too recently...

Work is frustrating, but I'm not gonna let it get me down! (hopefully!)

1 comment

Mini-link monday
Mood: happy
Music: "RBI Baseball" music
Posted on 2006-04-10 16:36:00
Tags: music links
Words: 69

A little out of the ordinary, but these two links totally made my day:

Seven Songs with Factual or Logical Mistakes in the Lyrics (via waxy)

This one is crazy - someone re-enacted the 1986 World Series Game 6, bottom of the 10th inning in RBI Baseball! The original radio commentary is played over the video, and the guy really took care to get everything right. Well done! (via kottke)

0 comments

cute math song and "V for Vendetta"
Mood: hopeful
Posted on 2006-03-29 12:59:00
Tags: movies music
Words: 321

So I'm cleaning out my inbox (down to 10 emails!!) and I stumbled across a video that theoyaung sent me a long time ago. It's a cute math love song - "Finite Simple Group of Order 2" (link is to a video). Good stuff!


I liked the movie, more than I thought I would. I like movies with dystopias. I could see England going that way (what with their increasing limits on free speech, etc.), although the fact that it was a theocracy seemed pretty weird to me, since England is a lot more secular than we are. (especially the fact that they locked up gays seemed pretty incongruous since they're more socially liberal over there, but I'm willing to give it as pass since the graphic novel was written in 1985ish)

The whole Evey getting kidnapped by V and in a fake prison camp rubbed me the wrong way. After arguing with destoyerj about it afterwards, I can't come up with any inconsistencies in how it was presented, but it still felt weird. I guess they implied there was a lot more to the camp that you didn't get to see, but in fact there wasn't any more than you saw. Or something. Meh.

So how did Evey escape capture between the time she was gone and November 5? I mean, it's a police state, right? There are presumably cameras everywhere and stuff, but this was never really explained. Unless I forgot that part.

The parts with torture and secret interrogation places struck a little close to home.

The end was pretty good, although it sure was convenient the many many bullets that were shot didn't kill V quickly enough that he couldn't kill everyone. And he seemed fine while he was killing everyone, but after he was done he was certain to die. I guess adrenaline is good stuff.

Anyway, I liked it. And now to donate to the ACLU...

8 comments

urgh
Mood: angry
Posted on 2006-03-17 08:59:00
Tags: phone music computer links
Words: 238

So originally this post was going to be about how angry I am that my new hard drive is dying, which I am. Although the upside is that I can return the new hard drive I got because presumably the old one will still work with a new motherboard, which is almost certainly the culprit. But, upon further reflection, meh. I'll fix it, it'll keep working eventually, and all that jazz.

Things that cheered me up:

- My new phone is out for delivery and should be arriving any minute now!

- Wednesday morning, as I drove to destroyerj's house to let him in, I was listening to KUT. Since this week is SXSW, they have lots of good live music on, and I listened to Sonya Kitchell, whose new CD I will be buying when it comes out (maybe I'll buy it at Starbucks just for fun!). I've been listening to the two songs from it that are available from the website quite a few times.

- This article "Who Can Name the Bigger Number" is interesting.

- The wikipedia article on recurring parts in the Colbert Report gave me a laugh. I should watch more of it!

- This site (NSFW, although it's not dirty, and only the sound is important) that destroyerj pointed me to is hilarious! -50 DKP for my motherboard.

- This SNL segment about a pirate convention is good stuff, although I may have linked to it before....

2 comments

This backup was done by LJBackup.