random crap

they keep throwing curve balls
last year, i was a couch potato. i had a show to watch almost every single night of the week and part of me really enjoyed it. the other part of me hated it. it's not that i had another important life outside of tv that was causing this mental anguish, but rather the idea of being tied down to something as silly as a tv show, no matter how good it was. but i did it, and happily most of the time, but when this season's shows hit their 3rd or 4th episode, i realized that i'd either grown out of most of them or they just weren't as good as last season. this was a relief because with wedding plans taking up a lot of time and me spending more time with my new family, i've missed out on a lot of shows this season. and again, nothing's really grabbed me with a few small exceptions. what did shock me, was while watching tv on thursday night, FOX informed Any and I that Tru Calling was being brought back. Imagine our shock for a show that crept up on us last season only to smash our hopes against those illusory rocks that are the Neilsen ratings which infomed us that reviews weren't good enough to bring the show back for a second season. it started slow and built to a gut wrenching finale last season. and after many interviews and articles on how the show would not make it back for a second season, FOX surprises us by not only bringing it back, but bringing it back this thursday night. no forethought for our schedules or even a scrap of "hey, we've got one of your favorites coming back again", just WHACK!, here it is. the problem with this is that the consensus is that it won't be back for a full season. the second season episodes will only amount to 6, because they were filmed before the show was cancelled. it's unfortunate, but this is the fate of many great shows.

and as Any mentioned in his most recent post, Gray's Anatomy premiered last night in place of one of my favorites, Boston Legal. Any gives it a glowing review and while i thoroughly enjoyed it and will eagerly watch it again in the future, i ask, do we really need another hospital drama?

those from our past
yesterday was easter. a day of eggs and celebration. a day of chocolate and family. many celebrate for religious reasons and many just like the goodies. it's a tradition in our large family to congregeate at my aunt's home near Van Alstyne, Texas and eat and watch the final four and chat over what has happened in the last year. i have a cousin, Mike who was a plant into this family via marriage when we were both about 13 years old and until this day, Mike has never lived down the fact that he chucked my ass down a large hill one pleasant sunday afternoon in Houston after my uncle's wedding and used me for a punching bag during most of my formative years. he now feels guilty about it and i never give him a chance to live it down.

in another unexpected twist, stacy and i ran over to PFChangs on saturday night around 10:30 for a late dinner and as we were sitting at the bar finishing off our meal, the sous chef walked up to the bartender to discuss a ticket that had been rung. (Any, this one is for you) It was chef James from Baystreet and Macaroni Grill. he didn't see me sitting there, but recognized me right off when i called to him. we spent the next half hour chatting about old times and what's been happening. he's been with PFCs for the last 2-3 years opening stores across the states and is now permanently stationed at the Northpark location. he's doing well, his daughter just turned 15 and he seems quite happy. Stodge, i don't know if you remember James from the Baystreet years, but he's a great guy. Once a friend, always a friend.

we named the dog Indiana

well, if THE MAN can be named after a dog, i guess a dog named after the man ain't so bad. she's ours and she's adorable. she's a blue healer and probably the smartest dog i've ever owned. say hi to Indiana, or Indy, for short.



here's another pic of her.

13 things that don't make sense

i'm not really into science and i never claim to understand much of anything in the universe. i'm still trying to figure out why i have hair growing out of my nose and ears and not my head. but after 3 years of the same astronomy class (i had to pass it eventually) and an interesting, albeit failed, attempt in other science classes, i'm always interested in what science has to tell us. with my added uncertainty about god, science is always trying to explain the unexplainable.

i stumbled across this article and it's utterly fascinating. especially things like dark matter, the pioneer anomaly and my favorite, the kuiper cliff (which i've just learned about). if this interests you as well, check out the short, but very informative article on new scientist.

on a totally unrelated note

to really anything, i got my copy in last sunday. was up until almost 1 in the AM watching too.

ah, memories.

unethical practices

there's a great article here on gaming goliath, EA and their employment practices that really make you question not only what big business is truly about, but the choices that their employees make for the love of their job.

Random Crap

making the world safer for one doggie at a time
on our trek out yesterday afternoon in the 40 MPH crosswinds (which should be avoided on 121 on a motorcycle), we stopped over at Operation Kindness to look at pups. stacy and i are both big dog (not in size, in fanatacism) fans and have decided that a doggie would be the perfect addition to the family. anyone who's ever been to a pound or a shelter or rescue knows the torture of looking at cute pups behind bars. unlike other places, where you can stick your fingers in the cage and touch the animals, these nazis over at OK basically took the approach of my mother when i was five. look with your eyes and not with your hands and keep your hands in your pockets. i don't know about you, but if i'm going to be taking an animal home, i want some interaction. now, i know that this is for our safety, but it was a pretty silly sight to see me trying to squeeze my head thru the bars just so i could get slathered with puppy breath. stacy is a big fan of ridgebacks and i'm a lab fan. i like em dopey and goofy. they had some really cute pups and some larger dogs that seemed to all have a little pit mix in them, but we've got plenty of other places to look and honestly, i'd almost prefer to hit a rescue so my chances of more of a purebred are good. and since OK doesn't kill their animals, we know they'll be going to a safe place eventually.

what's dude? is that like dude ranch?
'george hanson' couldn't have said it better. got the same exact response yesterday afternoon when out on the ride. it was followed up by '. . . i love those bars!' even with the little bits of appreciation like that from others, by the end of the ride, i was thinking i should have just stayed in bed and never left the apartment. it was supposed to be a beautiful day, just like it was on saturday. 80 degrees, sun out, light wind and all the time to ride in the world. instead, it was cloudy and the 40 mph wind gusts treated me like a bitch. especially on an open road with nothing on either side to block it and a speed limit running at about 60. not a problem in a cage, but i was rocking side to side like a recovering coke addict in a padded room. to top it off, while out on 121, i ran out of gas. whatever city planner decided that 121 shouldn't have gas stations for 20 miles should have his ass removed. thank goodness for the backup, but by the time i got to a gas station, i didn't even have fumes left. and the first station i pulled into WAS OUT OF GAS! this is what my life will be like today. thank god i don't have a permit to carry.

on an up side to this whole fiasco, i got my new pipes ordered and a new solo seat. no more bitches and no more bubs. the HKs that i've bought are the loudest and meanest looking after-market pipes available for a honda. makes me happy that i'll be moving to a parking garage in two months. and i'll no longer have noise envy of my fiancee's pipes.

Any finds a friend
my to-be stepson is as big a gaming freak as i am. almost more so. give the boy a console system and you've got an instant baby sitter for upwards of 9 days. recently, he's been spending a lot of time on my couch fused to the xbox controller playing simpson's road rage and kotor 2. simpson's RR is basically GTA in the simpson's world, but just really boring. he enjoy's it, which is cool, but i introduced him to kotor on saturday and he's left this world completely. he's totally engulfed in it. so while microsoft raises my soon to be son, stacy and i can get other things done around the house. this weekend, we step downstairs to check on him and Any has walked in from an evening out with the brathas and is entranced by the game and has become russell's wing man, so to speak, on getting thru the game. he's even indicated that he's interested in playing the game himself which really makes me wonder if the REAL Any has been abducted by aliens. getting him out of bed or away from his own computer is an act of god, so i'm waiting for Any to peel away his outer skin and reveal jose canseco or burt reynolds or an alien whose real mission is to start the probing. now i'm really concerned. :\

fun with acronyms

When we begin managing numbers for 6010 in the Orange systems we are going to impact the whole CNOT Load Balancing (LB) functionality..

What we are looking at having to do to support this LB Process is change our provisioning system to send a SPID Identifier to CNOT when we activate a subscriber so that if CNOT load balances the subscriber they know which LRN they can assign and which SPID is associated to this subscriber so that this information can be passed in the file to SMG (so you know which SPID the ISP should be initiated under).

Can you think of any other options we could have - i.e. not send the info to CNOT, have CNOT always LB to an Orange LRN and if it’s a 6010 number have the SMG initiate a Port In to NPAC versus an ISP? Even if this requires new functionality on the SMG.

I'm just making sure we are looking at all possible options….the network teams are planning on stopping the load balancing process after October 2006 so we wouldn't have to have this process in place forever.

everyone clear?

this is what my week has been like.

now you know what i do for a living. i write documents to make sure this doesn't happen or our future is in jeopardy with the FCC.

on an up note, i've got a bid in on these right now. i discovered that i have noise envy from my fiance's pipes and need something louder and meaner. they make the bike look differently than it does now, but i dig it. i also ordered a new solo seat instead of that big ass seat and pillion that honda uses stock.

rainbows are pretty, so why do i shoot at them?

we had a family night out last night. it was a good precursor to our lives ahead with each other and we all had a great time. a local dollar theater in plano has 50 cent tuedays. 50 cents to get into the movie, dollar dogs and all the fun you can have for free. so the three of us saw the incredibles and had a blast. the youngun hadn't seen it yet and walked out of the theater making crashing sounds and jumping up and down reliving the film. the theater was packed beyond anything i've ever seen before. the percentage of those below 12 way outnumbered those of us who are slightly over 12 years of age. at one point during the film, after not heeding my warning of sucking down their soda before the film started, someone had to hit the head, so in the effort to get to the little boy's room, it was discovered that there were people in the back of the theater and in the aisles sitting on the floor. obviously a fire hazzard and an overselling of tickets, but i'm looking back now and remembering that the grin on my face never left for the entire 2.5 hours. i love this film and it's definitley in the cards for ownership when it's released on dvd in the next two weeks. two hotdogs, a bag of popcorn and a mr pibb later was enough to make me appreciate 50 cent night. this may be a recurring night out.

dig, motherfucker, dig

thank goodness we've got people like any and stodgy and tex who are willing to discuss the political climate, the war and the important things that are happening in the world today. i just wanna mention mudvayne, bitches. april's a magical month. some good game releases, some decent movies, i should be losing my virginity and mudvayne's new one hits the shelves. i know what you are saying right now. just who the fuck is mudvayne. probably good you don't know, if you aren't familiar with them by now. but if you've an inkling of good speed metal appreciation in your blood and like to get angry every once in a while

Dig bury me underneath
Everything that I am rearranging
Dig bury me underneath
Everything that I was slowly changing
Wish you were committing
Suicide suckin' on a mother fuckin' tailpipe
Dead man dangling from a tight rope
Limbless in the middle of a channel bob away

how can you not appreciate a group with fans that'll do this to themselves? if yer digging the lyrics, check out the video. this is the original version of the song, but there's a better remix out there if yer feelin' feisty. you can also pick up their new single, happy? out on itunes.

I'm drowning in your wake
Shit rubbed in my face
Teething on concrete
Gums bleeding

mmmm, like rainbows and kittens . . .

just what do you think you're doing, dave?

HAL said it best, but it looks like HAL is about to be replaced. kind of a mixture between 2001, Jaws, Top Gun and The Fast and The Furious. check out the preview for stealth.

yeah, i wanna play a game . . .

a nekkid game with shawnee smith.

watched saw tonight on dvd with the little girl, Any. he walks in from shooting stick and i'm finishing up dinner and threw him the blockbuster case.

any: aw, fuck no man! fuck no!
me: c'mon, tuck in your skirt and put it in the player.

i've never seen him cover his mouth with both hands and gasp in horror like that. the film fades into credits and

any: (jumping out of his chair and accusingly pointing his finger at me)DUDE! YOU ARE FUCKED UP! WHAT THE HELL'S WRONG WITH YOU?
me: whatever man, you'd hack thru your foot to if you went insane. i saw you on your last date.

still, an enjoyable film if you are into the demented. i did a little search and there's quite a few sites dedicated to the film. most of them are running the same stuff like trailers and wallpaper and aim icons, but a few are dedicated to the truly fucked up movies. canibalism, 70's italian slashers and films that make you wonder if you really have crossed over the line of what society would deem as normal. there's a really great list they've compiled over at hOUs3 of J I G S A W if you're feeling balsy and want to see people like me like to watch late at night in the dark. and you knew it had to be coming. i just didn't realize it would be so soon. if you're in the mood for a great little online saw game and some disturbing visuals, check out the original saw site and play along.

movie stuff, second try

i tried to post this information this morning and the server timed out and lost the entire post. shit like that makes me want to punch a baby. anywhoo, let's give this a second go . . .

- Actor turned Director Peter Berg ("The Rundown", "Friday Night Lights") is getting a lot of cred for his helming work and next up for him is "Splinter Cell", a film based on the Tom Clancy video game. For "Splinter Cell", Berg says he's keen to mold a good actor into a hunky action star, rather than simply pluck someone renowned for action movies out and place him in the lead role. Still, Berg says it's too early to decide who should play the role. He does like one guy in particular though - Mark Wahlberg he seems to hint at. In terms of the accuracy of the book - "Next week I'm going to DC to talk with Tom Clancy and Porter Goss, the new head of the CIA."

i like Berg. he's a good director and a great actor. and i'm thrilled to death that Splinter Cell could be made into a decent film. Granted, most video game to movie attempts make the baby jesus cry, but if done correctly, it could be good. the only problem i see here is Marky Mark. Sam Fisher, the character in Splinter Cell is a 60 year old, grizzled bad ass. Marky can't keep his pants up around his waist. sure, wahlberg is a pretty decent actor, but not really appropriate for this role. and along the tom clancy lines, there's still rumor that rainbow six will be made this year. again, a couple of important roles that can't be sacrificed by bad or inappropriate actors is john and ding. fuck up mortal kombat all you want, but don't screw over clancy and his work.

- Clint Mansell (Pop Will Eat Itself) & Nigel Wiesehan (Deadhandsystem) have been hired to score the music for the movie version of Doom.

i'm not really purposely focusing on movies made from games. just so happens that i dig em. this seems like an odd choice for music, especially with Mansell seeing as how PWEI wasn't really the picture of demons-from-hell type of music, but Mansell also did the soundtracks for Requiem for a Dream and Pi which were both outstanding soundtracks. And Pi was an amazing movie if you've never seen it. Mathmetician goes insane when he discovers a 216-digit number hidden in Pi that uncovers the secrets of the universe and god. Anyway, he could be a great choice. I'm not familiar with Wiesehan's work, so nothing to say about that. Then again, i though Manson was an odd choice for the soundtrack to Resident Evil and i still listen to that soundtrack once a week. shows what i know. moving on . . .

- "Daredevil" is in a period of rest right now as they're hoping for people to forget Elektra before moving on to a sequel.

whoever told these fucknuts that daredevil was respectable, lied. i never caught electra, but i submitted myself to the torture that was daredevil and will never get that two hours of my life back. if electra is that bad, i'm thinking Jen and Ben seem right for each other.

- David Duchovny of X-Files fame has stated that the second XF movie is slated to begin filming this december. supposedly, the second film will not engage any of the previous, convoluted plotlines that plagued the tv show for nine years, but just be a good ole "aliens did it" sorta movie. there should be some subtle hints and drops for the true XF fans like myself, but he's saying it'll be more along the lines of the forgotten.

the forgotten? are you fucking kidding me? did anyone else see this horrid piece of shit? it'd been a decent movie had the aliens NOT been a part of it. how many movies about anal probing do we have to endure before we realize that roswell was a hoax and elvis is happily living in the "Three Rivers" trailer park in pennsylvania secretly disguised as a paul lynde look alike?



and finally, some cool movie related action figures:
Sin City: Mickey Rourke as Marv and Rosario Dawson as Gail, and yes, the figures are really in black and white. RAWK!
American Psycho: Pat with his video player
Donnie Darko: Frank the Bunny
and Halloween with Michael and his pumpkin.
Man, i wish i was geekier. i'd be gankin me some of this prize platic. yer plastic sucks Any. put that in your pipe and smoke it. Hmmmph!

brain pickings

random shit, free-flow nonsense, call it what you want.

mike ironside is still the man
ignoring the guy's rugged stature and his history in film and other mediums, mike has that unmistakeable voice that's just as creamy and delicious as caramel. it demands respect and attention and makes you beg for more. so what's better than just the voice? well how about a bad ass spec ops agent that acts under his own, secret governmental group WITH THAT VOICE. yeah, Splinter Cell is back with a new chapter and mike is once again, making Sam Fisher, the Third Echelon agent a believable and amazingly fun character to play. Chaos Theory is the third game in this Tom Clancy series and i downloaded the recently released single player demo the other night. i was actually laughing out loud. and not at the gameplay. i haven't even started the demo yet. there is a training video section from the main menu that shows you all of Sam's new moves and teaches you how to navigate through the game via shadows/stealth, weapons use and acrobatics. i haven't bought a new game in over 3 months (which is a record for me), but i'll be picking this one up. the demo is a hefty 650 meg, but worth every single bit. laughing out loud...

gamestop's stocks drastically drop in the last three months
no, it's not the end of the world, but you'd think it was around my place. anyone who knows anything about me knows that i'm a pretty impulsive buyer and especially with games. being a gaming nut and having a fairly addictive personality tends to keep my checking account balance low and gamestop's stocks high. it occurred to me the other day that i hadn't purchased a game since before last thanksgiving when i picked up WOW. times are a changin' when the game that keeps me from unnecessary and silly purchases is a MMO. seeing as how my history with this type of game is epically abrupt, i'm amazed that i'm still playing, but what an amazing game. i won't go into the details of the game or the addictive nature of it, but sorry gamestop. pappa's got a brand new bag and it's got the Blizzard label on it.

what a jackass
as so eloquently captured by Any, we made our semi-usual trek to Hooters on sunday evening for cheap crab and wings and beer. all was going well until those morons that ran the place switched over from women's basketball to the oscars. now normally, women's basketball stands second in line to me castrating myself with a plastic spork from DQ, but Chris Rock was hosting the show and Any had to make a conscious effort to keep me from gouging my eyes out with freshly emptied crab shells. i've personally never liked Rock's comedy and whomever felt he would be the good candidate to bring the reputation of the oscars back up to watchable status should be fired. as we sit eating crab . . .

LBG: so millions are tuning in to watch...
Any: yeah, i'd imagine so.
Rock: ...Farhenheit 911 was one of my favorite shows last year...
LBG: and millions suddenly tune out from the show...

and CMT's weekend marathon of the dukes of hazzard spikes.

don't make anti-Bush jokes on live tv just because a huge pack of democrats are sitting on the first three rows. no one gives a fuck about susan sarandon any more.

pre-wedding chaos
until you've been there, you don't understand how chaotic and expensive it is to get married. all that effort for one day. for a 2-3 hour timeframe that changes your life forever. i'm still pretty giddy about the idea of having a wife, but i'm even more giddy about being certain that all of our furniture will fit. i know that sounds shallow, but we've been buying a lot of new furniture lately (a living room suite this last weekend) and i've never been this focused on furniture and making it fit and DECORATING. until now, an old poster of barbara bach half-heartedly hung on the wall has done me fine, but now it's candles and lamps and a kitchen table and towels for the guest bathroom and mirrors strategically placed and . . .
well, it's enough to drive a guy to drink. and thank goodness i already do that. now we've got marriage counseling to go to and they expect me to know what i want for the big day, decorations wise and when do we get moved into the new place and where in SF are we staying for the honeymoon? bartender! another round of shots please!

movies
seen a few lately. stacy and i caught Constantine last week. don't bother. some cool effects and very biblical view of Hell, which was a nice change from every other depiction attempted in the last 20 years, but not much can be done with Keanu at the helm and it was very forgetful. this'll be a good SciFi premier next fall on a sunday afternoon.

Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence - this came from my queue yesterday and although i wasn't a fan of the original, this was very interesting. not so much for the plot, but for the amazing concepts and graphics that were materialized in the film. the japanese have a way of making the bizarre, well, truly bizarre. the thing that never seems to change about these films is the constant barrage of strung-together proverbs that make up the plotline. these characters that have this unbelievable knowledge of ancient proverbs and can quote them on the spot. and the way that each pertains to what's happening right then in the film.

Garden State - i wasn't sure what this film would be about and whether or not it was considered a "chick flick". i hate chick flicks, but truly enjoyed this one. not only was it well written and acted, but the soundtrack was amazing and i really related to it. this is easily a rental if not a purchase.

i want your room spotless by this afternoon!
this kept ringing thru my head this weekend as i did some spring cleaning around the house. as anyone's mom has demanded, so did mine. and it's stuck, because despite my occasional mess, i'm a pretty neat person. which really is a conflict seeing as how i live with a total slob. but for two days, i dusted and scrubbed and mopped and vacuumed and threw away and everything you could imagine. i honestly don't think i've ever cleaned this hard at this place. and to truly make this a monumental cleaning, i got rid of the turtles. yup, they're gone. took them out to the local pond and set them free. it was a very sad day as i've had the three of them for over two years now and it's odd to walk into the kitchen now without the gurgling sound of the filter running or seeing them swim listlessly from one side of the tank to the other. but it was time. i also gathered my GNR and Whitesnake posters from high school and will be tossing those out as soon as i can gain the courage to do so. my intent is to carry over as little as possible to the new place, even if it means throwing everything away.