I hate I hate I hate I hate I hate I hate I hate I hate I hate I hate I hate I hate I hate I hate I hate I hate I hate I hate I hate I hate I hate I hate I hate I hate Windows Media Player.

Dear "X-Men: The Last Stand",

What my brother said.

P.S. - I don't care what Last FM says, Denison Marrs is not emo. Freakin' a, people. Their first record also happens to be called "Holding Hands @ 35,000 Ft." ... ok, it's a wiki, so I just updated it. Now we're talking.

YES

Last night was a great, great, monumental moment in television history. Here's what Jack Bauer did. It was like watching Metal Gear Solid in real life, if real life had anything to do with Fox.

Killed: 6 (all in the first 20 minutes)
Tasered: 2 Secret Service agents and the Marine One pilot
Sleeper-Holded: The Marine One co-pilot
Documentation: Marine I.D., pilot certification, security clearance to fly Marine One

Final Score:

Jack Bauer - 1
President Logan - FUBAR
The Chinese - 1.3 billion

So I finally got my logs working and according to what I think they say, I get a lot more visitors than I thought I did. Good for you guys. Hope you're having fun.

Pixx

This is a good track. (One of the posts on the BBC page claims that "Venus" begat "Sweet Child O Mine" which I don't really care about. The chorus riff certainly bears a resemblance.) He pronounces it "Venus de Meeelo" - is that correct? Anyone? Any Romance language specialists in the house?

shirt one
back of shirt one
shirt two
inspiration for shirt two
don't know how this works
not funny
how can he afford such an extravagant lifestyle?
wasn't all that interesting
true power

Sophie B. Hawkins sent me a friend request. I feel honored, and although initially wary because of youthful overexposure to "Damn, I Wish I Was Your Lover" (thanks, WA1A!), I decided I would, in fact, be her friend. She seems to be doing all right for herself.

And, once again, I've stayed up longer than intended.

Commodore 64

Video Game Crash of 1983

This takes me back. It's fascinating to look at the development of the video game industry and see parallels to other types of corporate entertainment - companies not wanting to credit programmers or pay royalties; the first attempts at third-party software (interestingly enough, done by Activision - presumably illegally - until they won the court case); Quaker Oats (??) making games; and the E.T. fiasco (6 weeks of development ... it took me about that long to code my 9th grade computer project, which was a UFO getting shot down by an anti-aircraft gun and probably more fun to watch than E.T. was to play).

Fun Facts About Jack Bauer

Way better than that Chuck Norris crap. (Yeah, I know some of them are the same.) I'm up to #334 and there are still funny ones.

If you look up "terrorist" in the dictionary you will not see Jack Bauer, but Jack Bauer will see you.

[Freddie Mercury's] recorded vocal range spanned nearly four octaves (falsetto included), with his lowest recorded note being F2 and his highest recorded note being D6, according to the standard C scale. His highest recorded head voice note was F5.

I did not know that he was Indian. Very neat.

Work coffee

The consumption of work coffee makes a noticeable difference in my ability to survive for ~6 hours. However, said coffee is generally weak and entirely nonpotable without some sort of creamer. Since the office kitchen ran out of creamer last week (thanks to me), I was going to buy some more, but James in sales beat me to the punch and came in with a big bottle of Hazelnut fake liquid stuff.

1 part coffee + 3 parts HFLS = fakealicious

I came up with that word and then Googled it to find a link. I swear.

Flash mobs

Canadian flash mobs have also taken the form of zombie mobs, in which people gather at a prearranged place in makeup and walk to a predetermined location in a "zombie" style, shuffling stiffly and moaning "braaains" at passers-by.

I really want to do this. Facebook ...?

Uncyclopedia

Bad Jokes, etc.

Russians are funny

I guess it makes sense, but I never thought there was humor in the USSR.

Army of Darkness

Director Peter Jackson pays homage to Army of Darkness in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy in two scenes. Similar dialog is used between the scene where the humans declare their support for Ash and the scene where the The Fellowship of the Ring is first formed. Also, the wiseman brings a portion of newly created gunpowder close to a naked flame but Ash abruptly moves it away. A similar scene occurs in The Two Towers between Wormtongue and Saruman. Additionally, many sequences and shots within the siege of Helm's Deep in that film are almost identical to shots and sequences in Army of Darkness.

While installing my car stereo today - a job I estimate as taking the better part of 3 hours - I came to the realization that the person who stole my previous one knew exactly what he was doing. The molding was cracked in the exact place needed to slip in and wedge the deck out from the housing. That's interesting. So if you ever need to steal a deck from an old Buick or Oldsmobile, just let me know.

The other thing I realized was that Torx bolts are the dumbest invention ever. It's nice to know that they actually serve a purpose - I was trying to figure this out while I was working and I couldn't think of any reason to use one in place of a standard hex bolt. Anyway, who cares? That's all done and I have a shiny new deck in my car.

Finally, I'm currently wondering what the deal is with "Instant Karma!" It's the strangest mix - the slapback on the vocals and the way they distort pretty much through the whole song; the weird Spector-esque placement of the instruments and the huge group sing-along in the background ... I dunno. It's catchy with the handclaps and the backbeat and such, but I wonder why it works when so many things are "technically" wrong.

There is a girl out there in the world who loves Home Depot - because of the hot dogs they sell outside.

I learned how to pronounce "Adirondack" today.

"Official" Fender pickguard screws are about $3.50 for a pack of 20. Home Depot sells a pack of 100 #4x1/2" wood screws (exact same specs) for $2.77.

There are always people hanging around outside Corner Music, smoking in the parking lot. Inside, it's like a chummy blues-rock dinosaur club.

I was looking for a particular thing, and I did not want to order it off of the internet. I wanted to buy it today, and use it today. I went to 3 different stores and no one carried it. Finally, I went home and ordered it off of the internet.

I am going to go make some t-shirts.

Being asleep means never having to say you're tired.

Pictures from "Operation Rock": uno dos

Today I found out that my amp sounds very good when it's turned up all the way. It's also about 40 times louder than my friend Ben's Fender Deluxe Reverb. Which, to be fair, doesn't have a drive channel or a boost switch like my Traynor does.

We decided to go on campus, plug in to some outlets in the student commons area, and turn up all the way right at 1 PM, since that was a transition time between exams. We loaded up and went out there. Very few students were around, which was disappointing. We set up right in front of the bell tower and waited for it to chime. I remember a professor telling me that it rang on a G#, so we planned on hitting a big G# chord with it.

The bell rang. I hit the chord and could not believe how loud it was. We're talking LOUD. It sounded like it filled up the room nicely, except the room was ground and trees and sky and buildings. Meanwhile, Ben was trying to play some AC/DC and I couldn't hear his amp at all, which was turned up to 10 and about 6 feet from me. I thrashed on an open E chord, did some pick scrapes and some more noisy stuff, and then I see this lady run out of one of the buildings and start yelling at Ben. I chickened out and turned the amp off instead of what I should have done which was keep on rockin' in the free world. There's no way she would have been able to yell at us then.

Anyway, she informed us that the exam she was giving lasted until 2 and she couldn't hear her students' speeches inside the building BECAUSE MY AMP WAS SO LOUD. She didn't even tell us to stop; she just told us to wait an hour. Then she left and people we started to know wandered over. Zander said he heard me very clearly from the far end of a parking lot which was about 150 yards away with 2 buildings in between.

I don't know why I do stuff like this. Except in this situation, I really wanted to know what my amp sounded like at full volume. The next thing we're planning is a series of rooftop concerts with the Guns of Brentwood, and perhaps a special appearance in a dorm lobby.

I really, really hate myspace.

Crunk

In early 2005, rapper Kanye West amusingly coined the term white crunk to describe the gritty drum sounds of the all Caucasian Scottish alternative dance-rock group Franz Ferdinand. West and the band met at the 2005 MTV Europe Music Awards, where they sat down together to share praise and advice. West feels that the white crunk vibe has affected his new work and is best exemplified on his 2005 single "Diamonds from Sierra Leone" from the album Late Registration.

Tromboon

Seriously, Wikipedia. Cut it out.

Myths about Mozart

[Amadeus] attracted criticism for portraying Mozart as vulgar and loutish, a characterization felt by many to be unfairly exaggerated, but in fact frequently confirmed by the composer's letters and other memorabilia. For example, Mozart wrote canons on the words "Lick me in the ass" and "Lick me in the ass nice and clean" as party pieces for his friends. The Köchel numbers of these canons are 231 and 233 (their original German texts are "Leck mich im Arsch" and "Leck mich im Arsch recht fein schön sauber").

Wikipedia needs to stop entertaining me. For real.

Nardwuar

...on another occasion, faith healer Ernest Angley told Nardwuar that "God will strike you down" for persistently asking if there was a cure for the summertime blues.

That is literally the funniest thing I have ever read. Who is this guy?

Moussaoui sentenced to life in prison

Moussaoui sentenced to life in prison

What's the difference between these two stories? Well, the first one contains several quotes from people who felt the jury verdict was reasonable. It also has a discussion of mitigating factors in the case that may have affected the verdict.

The second one includes several quotes from people who wanted the death penalty (one expressing the wish that someone would murder Moussaoui in prison), as well as an implication that the reason the jury didn't choose that punishment was because of "deep divisions that mark the issue of capital punishment in our country", and not the actual facts of the case.

Also, the first article was written for a Canadian news website, and the second one was done for CNN.

ODB - Shimmy Shimmy Ya

For any MC in any 52 states

I've heard this song plenty of times. I never questioned the accuracy of this line. Now I wonder: did he say it just to be funny, or did ODB really think there were 52 states?

From: Flay I. Murderously
To: Brandon
Subject: Premier

Man's Health
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Antibiotics
Cholesterol
Diabetes
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Weight Loss
and more on Premier Pharsmacy

Click at your own risk.

M:I 3

Directed by J.J. Abrams (Lost, Alias, hahahah ... Felicity) + Evil villain played by Philip Seymour Hoffman + Main theme reworked by Kanye West = Just about the best they could do (on paper, at least)

A new idea for Iraq

With so many conflicts between ethnic groups, would a divided state work? The Czech Republic and Slovakia seem to work ok. Yugoslavia had a hard time, and of course Palestine and Israel aren't exactly chummy. None of these examples are a direct comparison, but I wonder if such a plan is even conceivable at this point. Definitely not without the support of the people - which I guess goes without saying - but I'm not sure how some guy in Delaware is going to convince the ethnic groups of Iraq to go their separate ways.

And as many people love Toni Basil's "Mickey" as can't stand it.

link

other link

Is this true? Please tell me it's not true. Ok, time for an informal poll of Sharkblog! readers. Post here with a vote of yes or no for "Mickey" as well as your nomination for worst song ever - try to stay away from the usual boy band/Celine Dion bashing.

I'll get the ball rolling. I hate "American Pie". Hate it. Sappy sappy sappy.

Close, but no cigar

At least somebody's trying. It's funny that there's an arbitrary limit of 5 listens per song. If they're free, just let people download the tracks to an alternate version of Napster - storing the files on the user's drive but running the player with ads or whatever. Then you save on bandwidth AND people get unlimited access to the songs.